Goldilocks finds Manhattan

Happy Winter Solstice!

2011-12-21T09:02:00.001-08:00

Today is the darkest day of the year, a time to reflect on the year and what will come next year. In Iceland it is believed that the darkness of winter makes the spirits stronger. Winter means more braising, possibly more reflecting and a hectic holiday season. Thankfully, it only gets brighter from here on out. Happy Winter Solstice friends!

In Memory of Dr. Chris Raines #itweetmeat

2011-12-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

I wish I didn’t have to write this post. I also wish I had the opportunity to tell Chris in person the impact he had on me. I woke up this morning and for an instant, I thought I could rewind the events of Sunday night and yesterday. Chris and I first connected on twitter, and I had the opportunity to speak to him on the phone numerous times and met up once with him for coffee in Chelsea (NYC) and we had such a great conversation that a lady next to us got up in a huff and left. I guess she didn’t like people talking about animal slaughter. To us it seemed perfectly normal but to others maybe this talk would have seemed “gross”. This was one of my favorite things about Chris, his delight in dialogue, exploring ideas through debate and educating others.. On one phone call he told me that he was described as a “grass-fed beef skeptic” in an article and he said this was a miss characterization, and it probably was, he was hard to categorize. The irony that he passed away so soon after Christopher Hitchens is not lost on me; they shared a joy of thinking and a passion for ideas. Chris never took anything at face value and was not afraid to question the status quo. However, Mr. Hitchens got to achieve his potential but tragically Dr. Raines won’t because he died in a car crash at the young age of only 29.

We didn’t always see eye to eye, and in hindsight it hurts to think back at missed opportunities to show him how much I admired him. I wish I had been able to tell him how brilliant I thought he was—every time I chatted on the phone with him I came away in awe of his intellect. He loved art, meat and history and chatting with him was fun. He was dynamic and passionate. I can’t even imagine what his family and loved ones are going through. He left such an impression on me and I hadn’t known him for long.

Chris taught me to see processors as an ally and not as an enemy—seems like a simple idea but farming can be so hard and farmers so hard headed we sometimes can’t see the whole picture. He was committed to giving processors a voice as valued members of the “food chain,” this is a message I sometimes wasn’t willing to listen to but it did get through to me. Actually, Chris and I rarely agreed on food politics and yet, he changed the way I saw the world. I am a better person for having been pushed to see things from a processor’s shoes. His death is an immense loss for the agricultural community and America’s food culture: he had so much MORE to contribute.

My deepest condolences go out to Chris’ family and loved ones. He will be greatly missed.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the GL Raines Memorial Scholarship Fund, c/o The American Red Poll Association, PO Box 847 Frankton, IN 46044.

Finding Your Joy

2011-12-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

I had an exhilarating Anusara inspired yoga class on Sunday. The teacher used this quote by Joseph Campbell to open class: "find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain." The lesson of the class? Finding your joy takes effort but it's important work.

I have been working on finding the joy in my life: taking on less projects(many of which don't pay enough anyways) and trying not to over extend myself. It is so easy to bury oneself in projects and work, without asking what do I really want? How do you find time to work on yourself in this mad world we live in? Sometimes I wish I could be more like my dog Max. He finds joy in the everyday.

The Irrepressible Melissa McEwen

2011-12-05T09:42:00.000-08:00

I first met Melissa McEwen in person during a Food+Tech hackathon where we collaborated on a fun project called “group me.at” but I had been a follower of her blog and tweets for a long while. I soon learned that she is as impressive in person, as she is online. Talking to Melissa is like interacting with a charming (and cute!) oracle, one never walks away without learning something new. She has also inspired my father and I to listen more to our bodies and eat food that makes us feel healthiest.

I inherited my father’s “bad stomach,” and my stomach had gotten particularly bad about four years ago, so bad that being in bed became more common then I wish to admit. Two years ago I gave up gluten because I felt diet had to have something to do with how I felt. At the time, my health insurance had a high deductible, and I had had a previous diagnostic nightmare in my early twenties, which ended up costing thousands of dollars without providing any answers---so I started to do a lot of personal research, but it wasn’t until I started to read Melissa’s blog and read her recommended readings that things started to fall into place for me. I am navigating the complex food allergy diagnosis process right now but cutting out gluten and eating our meat and vegetables from the Sunnyside CSA has changed my life, as well as my fathers(he eats my mom's organic vegetables from her garden). Melissa has been a big part of this, introducing me to a world where animal fat is not the enemy but the cure and I thank her for it. My father does too: he feels like a new person, and has never looked better. I haven’t talked about this before on my blog because I am not a medical professional and have been privately working through these issues. I think that everyone should research these issues for themselves, talk to their doctors and listen to their bodies.

I have felt that this diet has had a big impact on my mental health as well, which is something I have always straggled with. I come from a long line of painters and artists and I have inherited a creative disposition that makes me more sensitive to the world. Meat and animal fat makes me far more stable—and I have found myself wanting to get back into the studio

Melissa and I had a fun “girl’s weekend” just before she moved to Chicago at my house upstate. We had dinner at the farm, took some fun photographs and shared lots of lively conversation. In Chicago, she is going to be working with her family’s farm, helping to market it’s products. I trust that she will be a success because she has been so helpful to our farm with her MEATSHARE. I also foresee her becoming an important thought leader in the field of nutrition and agriculture (how cool that these two disciplines are now linked!).

Queens Premiere of American Meat!

2011-11-29T15:12:00.001-08:00

There is gong to be a screening of the new film American meat this Friday in Sunnyside. It is the Queens premiere for the movie and I am excited to see it! There will be a panel discussion following the movie and I will be one of the speakers! For more info please check out the the Sunnyside CSA website.

Steamed Mussels with Oven-Baked Olive Oil Fries

2011-11-21T05:27:00.000-08:00

Mussels are not only sustainable and reasonably priced they are also easy; they really are a "fast food." Do not be intimidated! You just need to know how to clean them: start by rinsing them a few times in cold water and then soaking them in the cold water for at least 20 minutes, this helps to get the grit out. Make sure to go over every mussel to make sure that they are closed(discard any open ones) and then scrub the mussels and remove any beards.

Mussels are a romantic meal for my man and I. We had one of our first dates at Cafe Brussels, a charming albeit retro Belgian place in the West Village which has since closed. Funny, how New York is forever changing, no? I can not decide which I like better, the mussels with their delicious broth or the crispy french fries. For a home-style version of the bistro classic I like to oven fry the potatoes in olive oil. They get really crispy too! The secret? A glass baking pan and an hour cook time at 375 degrees.

Steamed mussels with oven-baked olive oil fries

For the mussels

I sauteed 3-4 tablespoons of butter in a 6 quart pot
then I minced 4 cloves of garlic and
1/4 of an onion or one shallot and sauteed them until soft and translucent
then in a large pot I added 2 pounds of cleaned mussels
1/2 cup of white wine and brought the pot to a boil
and then steamed them for about 10 minutes.

For the olive oil potato fries:
My mother uses olive oil in everything. Her olive oil baked potatoes are a summer time staple and are perfect for a quick meals like hamburgers.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 - 2 pounds russet potatoes, cut up into eighths.
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt ( or to taste)
freshly cracked black pepper to taste
Preparation:
Cut up potatoes into eights by cutting them in half, and then in fourths, when you are cutting them into eights cut them into wedges at an angle.
add olive oil and a bit of salt and freshly ground pepper, toss.
The secret is a thick roasting pan(she uses a glass Pyrex) and she bakes them for about an hour at 375 and tosses them a few times.

Baby Kale and Beet Salad with Walnut Dressing

2011-11-13T16:50:00.000-08:00

Salad dressings have become an interesting topic in our home, as newlyweds we find ourselves creating traditions together and our salad dressing is no exception. We both come from salad eating families and growing up, dinner wasn’t dinner if there wasn’t a salad. A salad would accompany a vegetable, some sort of protein and a starch. It was never the whole meal, because it was an accompaniment my mother would make a simple apple cider vinaigrette with olive oil, Dijon mustard or soy sauce and she would toss it with whatever greens were in season or were growing in her fabulous garden. Her dressing is almost astringent in it’s acidity but this would always work well because it accompanied a big meal. My husband is always enthusiastic about everything I make, but he might not be the biggest fan of apple cider vinegar, or he doesn’t want it every night. To temper the acidity of the dressing I have been adding a dash of maple syrup(from our farm) or a bit of honey, which makes us both happy! This sweeter dressing works well with all the fall produce we have been getting in our CSA too. Here, I added more than a dash of maple syrup but the sweetness of the dressing plays well with the earthy flavors of the beets and kale.

Baby Kale and Beet Salad with Walnut Dressing

Ingredients:
4 cups of baby kale, washed, stems removed and roughly torn by hand
1 bunch beats, boiled or roasted, peeled and sliced
2 ounces of creamy feta cheese (a more delicate creamy version of feta that I have found here in Queens)
salt and pepper to taste

Dressing:
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons walnut oil (or olive oil)

Preparation:
Place kale, beets and cheese in a salad bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, in a small bowl whisk together the dressing.
Toss the salad with 2 tablespoons of the dressing in your salad bowl , reserving the rest of the dressing ---you will have leftovers---for the next salad!

Olive Oil Fried Brussel Sprouts

2011-11-10T10:29:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite dishes at Salt & Fat is their fried Brussel sprouts. They are SO good and A bit addictive, so much so I had to make them the day after I had them at the restaurant. Here I fried them in olive oil but you could easily fry them in lard or bacon fat. The quality of the fat is important in this dish because it is a big part of the flavor. It reminds me of fried artichoke hearts because the nuttiness of the Brussels sprouts works so well with the olive oil: a real fall treat. Using a cast iron skillet is important in the dish because you want to have a steady heat to fry the brussel sprouts but you do not want it to get too hot so that the olive oil burns.

Olive Oil Fried Brussel Sprouts

Ingredients

10 ounces of brussel sprouts, cleaned and dried well
1/2 cup good quality olive oil
1/4 teaspoon sea salt or to taste
freshly grated Parmesan to taste

Equipment:
cast iron pan or dutch oven casserole
mircoplaner or cheese grater

Preparation:
Clean the brussel sprouts, using a knife cut of bottoms and discard any damaged leaves, I cut the larger brussel sprouts in half but left the small ones whole.
Make sure to pat dry the brussel sprouts or let them dry in a colander for ten minutes and then pat dry. Water can cling to the sprouts and can create a bit of a mess when you fry them if they are still wet.
In a heavy bottomed pan, over a medium high heat the olive oil until the oil becomes warm.
Add the brussel sprouts and fry for roughly 7 minutes, you want the outer edges to brown and the brussel sprouts to soften but be mindful not to over cook them.
Place on dish, season with salt immediately drizzle with some of the oil and then grate Parmesan cheese over the dish.
Enjoy!

Cleaned, cut and dried sprouts

beautiful olive oil in the casserole panBrussels sprouts fry for around 7 minutes

Enjoy!

Salt & Fat

2011-11-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

The delicious bacon fat popcorn

Salt & Fat is a relatively new restaurant in Sunnyside, Queens, that my friend Melissa has going on and on about how great it is. A few weeks back a group of food and tech people met up at the restaurant: Veronica from Gojee and Sarah from Recipe Relay along with Melissa. It was the perfect "girls night out": the food was impeccable, reasonably priced and it was the perfect accompaniment to a lively conversation. I highly recommend it! I dragged my husband there for a date night after being a way for the week. We had a lot of fun!

PS. I absolutely LOVE their branding as it is pig centric; I have become obsessed with pigs since we started to farm them and love to see them in art and also on plates...

The beet salad with touches of citrus and cripsy pepperoni slices.
Fried Brussel Sprouts with Parmesan
Yellow fin tartar Pork Belly Tacos

Thoughts on Home Rule and Gas Drilling

2011-11-09T06:35:00.000-08:00

I am a registered voter in Meredith, NY where my family farms. Our farm is the largest working farm in the town, and we now farm the most land. This fact saddens me. My father now hays hundreds and hundreds of acres of neighbor’s land because they have stopped dairy farming. I guess this could be viewed as a plus for our farm we could grow exponentially because we have access to so much fallow pasture, but it really isn’t, yes, we have more land to lease but the fact we are the last working farm on our county highway makes us vulnerable. As farmers who raise animals for meat we rely on agricultural infrastructure and we need to be supported by the community. Support comes in many forms: political, economic and cultural. It is hard for non-farmers to understand the complex economic realities that farmers face and how vulnerable we are. Our neighbors see beautiful animals on beautiful pastures and think this is the way it will always be because it looks so darn good. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

A recent article in the New York Times about how acrimonious the gas drilling issue as become upstate, depressed me. The article painted an unfaltering picture of ideological fault lines and fragile communities; farmers who have sold out gas rights (farmers are usually the largest landowners in rural towns) are being threatened by citizens who feel their future is being sold out. I have complex feeling toward this all. My knee jerk reaction is to sympathize with the farmers, where were these citizens when the wages of farmers reached pathetic lows? Yet, I am steadfastly against gas drilling, and have written about the issue after being prompted by Ken Jaffe, a close family friend. For community members the challenge should be two fold: focus energies on laws protecting our land and water but also to ACTIVELY support local agriculture with their dollars; helping to build a vibrant local economy where farming is sustainable, economically. The gas companies have been able to capitalize on the fact that most farms in Upstate New York are struggling.

The town of Meredith has asked citizens to submit their thoughts on the issue of gas drilling and home rule, and I admit it is a complex issue for me. Should local municipalities be given the right to pass laws that govern their towns when they conflict with state and federal laws? My thoughts instantly wander to the civil rights movement and how instrumental the federal government was in helping desegregate schools and yet now, state laws are responsible for giving gay Americans their civil right to marry. It seems that a Mississippi referendum stating that a fetus is a human being failed, but if it hadn’t, should a state be able to have laws that conflict with federal law? Complex stuff, no?

When I envision gas-drilling towers in my town of Meredith, I feel a deep sense of dread. The fact that the industry has been able to lobby it’s way into immunity from the simplest of environmental protections, should have all us of worried. I am. When industry dollars can buy deregulation we all lose. I voted via absentee ballet and I feel honored to personally know everyone I voted for. Maybe, home rule is a necessary response to a federal government that has failed to protect our communities. I certainly don’t have the all answers but I feel privileged to be able to express them and work with my local officials on my town’s future: a future where farming is part of the answer.

The Cows are Still Grazing in Iceland and My New Lamb Scarf

2011-11-05T03:17:00.000-07:00

The cows, sheep and horses are still out grazing here in Iceland, the gulf stream makes this island very temperate and one thing grows well here: grass! This week has been busy with visiting relatives, and working on my grandmother's show. I got a bit of time to take some photos in the country while going to visit my aunts in Arkanes, one is a potter and the other, a painter. In the morning my mother and I checked out an arts and craft fair in downtown Reykjavik. I am always so pleased to see Icelandic craftman's creative work, and I even bought myself a stylish scarf made of lamb skin!

Icelandic sheep out on pasture.

And Icelandic farm ready for winter with lots of hay.

My late grandmother's show, to open today! Me(and my new scarf made by Sigrún Guðmundsdóttir))!

Icelandic Cod Cheeks Sauteed in Butter

2011-11-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

A moody day in Reykjavik, it snowed a bit on Mount Esja

There is a charming fish shop in downtown Reykjavik that my mother likes to shop at when she stays in Iceland. After having spent the day working at the gallery, we decided to check to see what they had. They have a small selection of fish but all of it is at its peak of freshness. We decided on cod cheeks, I was very curious after seeing Liza’s Food Curated video on “New Nordic Cuisine”. Icelandic fish is a revelation because it is so fresh; if you are not “a fish person” in all likelihood you have not had truly fresh fish. Cod and haddock are the primary fish fished here in Iceland, and with the economy in the state it is, fishing has become its saving grace. Many sustainability organizations rank both these fishes as “do not eat,” I have sat in many on Icelandic lectures on the subject and they give a decidedly different take on the issue. This blog entry on tree huger certainly captures how Icelanders' view their fishing industry. Icelanders are protective of their fishing rights (one of the main reasons they have never joined the EU) and claim to do it sustainability--- not that one should ever trust industry talking points--- but when I am visiting I do eat north Atlantic haddock and sometimes sole and halibut—it is a cultural habit. Eating mindfully is a learning process—and just because one has always done something doesn’t mean we can’t learn to do better. So this is my way of saying, I want to learn more about the issue.

Cod cheeks, surprisingly reasonable at only $2.50 a serving. The cod cheeks sauteed in butter.

With all this said, the cod cheeks were marvelous, a bit textural like sea scallops and so flavorful. Icelanders, as a rule don’t eat cod themselves because it is an expensive fish that they export; instead, they eat the oil, liver and the “odd bits.” Here, I sautéed them in a LOT of Icelandic butter, treating them a bit like I would a scallop. So good!

*Update: The Monterrey Bay Aquarium upgraded Icelandic cod to GOOD ALTERNATIVE last summer. This is great news! Seems like the Icelandic fish industry is working with the Monterrey Bay Aquarium to make their fisheries more sustainable.

Roasted Icelandic Lamb Fillet

2011-11-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

Pretty sunset over Reykjavik

Lamb fillet which had been previously frozen.

Perfectly roasted lamb fillets with crispy fat cab!

To say Icelandic lamb is good is an understatement. It really is fantastic. My mother had been to Iceland in June and was going on and on about this lamb fillet which she had been served at a family’s member house. You see, we talk a lot about meals we have had together and I was a bit jealous. Yes, our lamb is excellent but Icelandic lamb is too and I was curious to learn about this cut, the secret she said was the decedent fat cab that is left on the fillet. Now, I was even MORE jealous! Lamb fat is one of my favorites, and please do not be afraid of animal fat, there really is little science linking animal fat to disease and if you are afraid of gaining weight, fat actually helps to satiate you and for some odd reason fat does not make people gain weight like highly refined sugars and carbohydrates. Not all calories are equal! So please, let’s not be afraid of animal fat. Let yourself enjoy it, because it really is enjoyable. As you can see, this lamb fillet has almost as much fat as it does tender loin meat, but that is the point, crispy fat and tender luscious lamb meat (this is starting to get a bit lewd!).

I roasted the fillet in a very hot oven (525 degrees) for about 11 minutes and let the meat rest for 5 minutes. The fat cap became crispy and the inside was still rare: the perfect combo. I hope the “lamb fillet with fat cap” becomes a trend in New York!
I the seasoned lamb fillets.

Proof they were perfectly roasted.

Roasted Icelandic Lamb Fillet

Ingredients:

1 -1 ½ pounds Icelandic lamb fillet (two pieces)--(serves to people)
Freshly crushed pepper (I used rose peppercorns)
Sea salt, to taste

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 525 degrees
Season the lamb fillet well with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. Place the fillets fat cap side up in a roasted pan and roast for about 11 minutes (or until the fat becomes crispy).
Remove from oven and let rest for at least five minutes. Enjoy!

Windy day in Reykjavik

2011-11-01T11:26:00.000-07:00

The view of the ocean and Esja from the shores of Reykjavik

We arrived in the early morning and were greeted by a strong wind, the day turned out to be clear and the November light is so beautiful in Iceland--it tugs at the buildings and mountains creating a golden effect that last for hours. Today we feasted on canned cod liver(amazing!), Icelandic butter, smoked trout, local cheeses and hot chocolate. Tonight we are making poached sole, we are also hoping for another clear day tomorrow.

Headed to Reykjavik

2011-10-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

Esja ---the mountain that can be scene from Reykjavik.

I am going to Iceland with my mother next week to help with an exhibition of my late grandmother's paintings. I haven't been to Iceland in a long while and I can't wait! I plan on going to the heated public pools, eating lot's of dairy products, lamb, poached North Atlantic haddock and spending time with my wonderful mother! I am bringing my camera too, so that I can capture the beauty that keeps me coming back to the land of my birth.

Raise the Roof Fundraiser at the Hamden Inn

2011-09-14T09:42:00.000-07:00

Poster design by the talented Cindy Dunne

If you haven't heard about the recent flooding's impact on upstate New York farms, you can read my piece on the Watershed Post, unfortunately many of our farms experienced devastating loses after the heavy rains we have experienced. Luckily, our community is filled with talented artists and farmers, and we are especially lucky to have the Shermin Hill Farmstead and the Hamden Inn which is located on the vegetable farm Lucky Dog Organic Farm in Hamden, NY organizing this event. I am honored to be donating these two framed prints of my photography for the Raise the Roof Fundraiser at the Hamden Inn in Hamden, NY.

For more info check out the Raise the Roof page on facebook and check out the Watershed Posts piece on the fundraiser.

Picture of the prints in a frame.
I had to include my rooster lamp which I have yet to get a shade for! Charolais Cow and Calf in Autumn Light
11 1/2 X 15 1/4 in a 15 3/4 x 19 3/4 frame

Spring Lake Lambs
11 1/2 X 15 1/4 in a 15 3/4 x 19 3/4 frame

This image was featured on the cover of the 2010-2011 Pure Catskills Guide

A Walk Before Dark

2011-09-09T05:35:00.000-07:00

Summer Harvest and Irene

2011-09-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

New York City was lucky. Irene did little to cramp our style but unfortunately many of New York's farmers faced devastating loses due to flooding after Irene's heavy rains. Our CSA farm in Long Island did not lose too many crops, but I wanted to post pictures of summer's bounty from this weeks CSA to illustrate what was lost throughout our state. New York vegetable farmers work hard ALL year long for a summer's harvest and this past week many lost all their crops, which for many represents most of their annual income. An old friend's farm in Schoharie county was flooded and 4 feet of water destroyed her house, her barn and many of her farm animals perished. I can not imagine it. There are many fundraising efforts underway, and I will keep you posted on them! For now, please check out Pure Catskills list of fundraising efforts.

Marinated Zucchini with Herbs

2011-08-06T07:03:00.000-07:00

My new obsession: Marinated Zucchini with Basil or Mint

One weeks share!

I joined the Sunnyside CSA this year, I have resisted in past years because my mother and I garden together on the farm, but after a challenging spring, we were not able to focus that much on the garden. Thankfully, being part of a CSA makes you feel like you have an organic garden, full of summer's bounty at your disposal, which for a city dweller feels like you have found the world's best kept secret. I have found that the CSA has complimented my personality, I am frugal and like to get creative, so all the vegetables force me to cook more, and to experiment. Also, it is so easy, you just need to pick up the vegetables and you are set all week. Not to mention how reasonable it is, for just over 20 dollars a week you have enough vegetables for four adults. The CSA forces you to eat out a lot less, so there is extra savings on top of that and the icing on the cake is that all the money goes straight to the farmer.

A friend recently gave me the book La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy, which is filled with ancient Italian recipes that have been compiled by chefs in an effort to preserve Italy's culinary tradition. My favorite section of the book is the one devoted to vegetables, there is nothing more inspired or simple than how the Italians prepare vegetables. Every recipe I have tried has not only been surprising but a perfect compliment to the abundance that the CSA has provided us with. Growing up in New York, one would be hard pressed to not have a strong tie to Italian food, however I have never been a fan of Italian American food: too much pasta, cheese and tomato sauce. I have since learned, that Italian food can be fresh, delicious and seasonal.

All these seasonal vegetables would not have been made possible if it were not for the organization Just Food, that creates CSA's in NYC, the farm Golden Earthworm Organic, or all the wonderful volunteers that work hard to create such a wonderful resource for our community. All this community involvement makes the vegetables taste even better. The whole experience has made me very optimistic about where our food movement is going and the potential we have to make each others lives better.

One of my favorite recipes from the book is a "marinated zucchini recipe" which uses white vinegar, garlic and mint. It is delightful. I tried it once with basil, and I almost prefer it. Also, it is advised that you serve it cold, but I prefer it served hot.

The sliced zucchini

frying the zucchini in olive oil

Marinated Zucchini with Mint or Basil

adapted from La Cucina: The Regional Cooking of Italy

Ingredients:
2 zucchini, sliced thinly
handful of basil or mint
3 cloves of garlic, sliced or minced
1/3 cup olive oil plus 1 tablespoon if needed
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste

Preparation:
Using a mandolin or knife, slice the zucchini thinly
in a heavy bottomed skillet fry the zucchini until tender and just golden
you will need to fry these in batches
place on serving dish
mince the garlic and mint or basil
after you have sauteed the zucchini
check the level of olive oil, if you think you need a bit more add a tablespoon
fry the garlic and herbs, until fragrant
add vinegar, then salt
pour over zucchini and serve!
enjoy!

Have you visited a New York farm this summer?

2011-07-19T08:06:00.000-07:00

The view from the barn, beautiful mountains in the distance.

Stox dairy has around 50 registered Holstein and Brown Swiss.

The Dauberts' barn was so clean and cool, I almost wanted to move in!

Butter making for the kids! A highlight of the tour was how knowledgeable and enthusiastic the Daubert's daughter was about agriculture and their lovely farm.

Summer is the perfect time to visit a farm in New York State! Upstate Chenango County recently held the "Chenango County Fesitval of Farms," where dozens of local farms opened their doors and barnyards to the public. I had the chance to visit Stox Dairy in Bainbridge, New York. Jeremy and Rebecca Daubert are young, energetic dairy farmers who milk around 50 registered Brown Swiss and Holstein cows, and they are also parents to two adorable children. The tour was excellent, the farm was gorgeous and the whole family was involved in teaching and showing off the dairy operation. Farming is one of the few professions where family is the center of the business, it is a lot of work, but it is also one of the best ways to live.

The meal that technology found

2011-07-11T16:24:00.000-07:00

After a long day of hiking in the Adirondacks, we decided to take the “scenic byway” home, which extends from Saranac Lake through to Old Forge and through the historic city of Utica. Utica is the home of one my friends Shulamis Giordani who is a food entrepreneur/visionary who founded and runs the Foodshed buying club, an Internet based storefront that connects farmers and buyers. She is always talking about her adopted city of Utica; it’s diversity and potential. Curious, and armed with my Smartphone, I yelped “hot on yelp” while on the highway, and knowing that Utica has a long and storied Italian food tradition we decided on Joey’s Italian eatery, pressed “directions” and then “navigation” on Google maps and we began a tour of Utica, a once grand city that seems to not have lost it’s charm or home town pride.

Joey’s was bustling when we arrived, and a waitress asked if we had a reservation, we said no, and she quickly ushered us to the bar, telling us we could get a table in 20 minutes. The place looked like it had not been changed since the 1970’s, and there were numerous families’ enjoying heaping portions of home-style Italian American classics. This place had charm, people were happy to be there and we felt like were in an episode of No Reservations, invited into another world: a community centered on good food and tradition.
We only had to wait 10 minutes and sat down eat dinner. We ordered stuffed cherry peppers, “Utica-style Italian greens” and an anti-pasta salad that was extremely satisfying after our hard hike. Our short visit to Utica felt rich, all because we were armed with technology that led us to an authentic hometown favorite. Sometimes innovation can help one find old gems.

Utica Italian-style Greens: Escarole, Garlic, Parmesan/Romano Cheese, Breadcrumbs and Sweet and Hot Peppers. Got to recreate this for my column.
And then we drove home, filled and happy.

Clamming it up!

2011-06-07T09:48:00.000-07:00

Clams with Black Bean Sauce

Do you ever get overwhelmed thinking about what to make for dinner? Deciding whether it will be tasty, sustainable and healthy is becoming more and more complicated. Not to mention is it all safe? Shellfish are one of those miracle foods that are not only sustainable, tasty and healthful they are extremely easy to prepare once you learn the tricks to cleaning and steaming them! Not to mention how affordable they can be.

This article by Barry Estabrook entitled Politics of the Plate: Clam Up makes one want to eat clams almost every week because one can help American producers and the environment with out sacrificing on flavor:

Due to excess production and a decline in the number of clams Americans eat, Massachusetts clams are now worth only 17 cents and have to compete with 9-cent imported clams from Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia. With rising costs, some farmers are no longer able to stay in business. One of the hurdles Rheault hopes to overcome is that clams tend to be bi-coastal delicacies. “We have to get word out to people in the heartland who have never tried a clam because they think it’s yucky,” he said. “It’s nutritious, particularly when everyone’s looking for more Omega-3s. And it’s delicious.”

Calms have a deep briny flavor, and when complimented with homemade black bean sauce it gives you a tremendously flavorful dish with little effort. It is important to use smaller clams like little neck or manila in this dish because the larger clams can be tough. In the summer I love to garnish it with minced fresh basil, cilantro, chives or even mint. Whatever fresh herbs you have on hand. Check out the recipe here: Clams with Black Bean Sauce.

This dish is complimented well by rice and a seasonal sautéed vegetable like baby bok choy or spinach.

Some other simple clam dishes:

Arugula Salad with Parmesan and Lemon Dressing

2011-06-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

My mother had a wonderful garden while we were growing up and our summers were filled with the best salads, vine ripened tomatoes and all sorts of wonderful produce. However, I appreciated everything except for arugula, it was just too spicy and bitter for my sensitive taste buds, and it wasn’t until I moved to New York after college that I started a love affair with it. At a lower east side pizzeria I had a wonderfully simple arugula salad with Parmesan shavings and a lemon olive oil dressing and I have been hooked ever since. The secret to this salad is to season it liberally with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Arugula Salad with Parmesan and Lemon Dressing

Ingredients:
Juice of half a lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
¼ cup olive oil
1 clove garlic crushed
1 bunch of arugula, washed and dried
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler
Preparation:
In a bowl mix the lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. I like to add the garlic to infuse the oil with garlic flavor but I remove it when I dress the salad.
Meanwhile, wash and dry the arugula and place in a large bowl.
Dress the salad with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix the salad so that it is fully covered with the dressing.
Shave the Parmesan cheese and place on top of salad. Serve! Enjoy!

Slow Roasted Fresh Ham with Ramps

2011-05-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

After learning how to forage at last year’s Forage and Feast I was able to find a large patch of ramps in our woodlot. Mark from no recipes taught us how to distinguish between ramps and Lily of the Valley, which are quite similar in appearance but have a different smell: Ramps have a wonderful garlic aroma and the Lily of the Valley have none and are poisonous! When foraging it’s important to use all your senses, which is also true when you cook.

Buying frozen meat from farmers in bulk has become a hopeful trend, and many devotees are confronted with new cuts and some might be intimidated or have little idea what to do with these unfamiliar cuts. For instance, customers of our bulk orders might find cuts like bone-in fresh ham or pork shanks and wonder what to do. Fear not! There are many wonderful ways to prepare these cuts!

My grandmother-studied art in Copenhagen as a young woman and learned how to roast pork in a Danish style. Many butchers here in the states did not include a fat or skin on the loin roast so she would instead roast a fresh ham or picnic roast for us when I was a child. She also never abandoned the frugality she and my grandfather had to employ as young “starving” artists in post war New York. For this slow roasted ham with ramps, I used her method but I marinated the fresh ham in chopped ramps with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roasting less expensive cuts like fresh ham is the perfect way to get the decadent roasted pork experience but on a budget. Not to mention the fact that I was able to create four meals from this pork roast: I served the leftovers over homemade refried beans with lime juice, also in a “twice cooked” Chinese stir fry with vegetables and then I made ramen with the bones.

Slow Roasted Fresh Ham with Ramps

Ingredients:
One fresh ham preferably bone in (5-6 lbs)
Salt and pepper to taste
A seasonal herb chopped and added to olive oil
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Bake for 4 to 5 hours or until the roast cooks to an internal temperate reads 155-160.
Let rest before slicing. Enjoy!

Spring is Here, Yes.

2011-05-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

Spring is Cute

2011-04-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

Very, very cute! That is all.

Roasted Eye Round Roast

2011-04-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

The eye round roast looks a bit like a tenderloin roast, but is not, it is a tougher flavorful cut that I have learned to love roasted. Here I pan seared it in lard at a high heat for a few minutes and placed it in an 500 degree oven for 20 minutes and then turned off the oven and served it an hour and a half later. So easy, and tender, and so beefy. I am a big fan of high heat roasting for the "tougher" inexpensive cuts. I served it with foraged ramp polenta and steamed green beans that we had frozen from the summer. So good!

Thoughts on Slaughter and Transparency

2011-04-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

A young apprentice cuts a recently slaughtered hog at the newly opened Larry's Custom Meats

As many of you know, I serve on the board for the Center of Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship, which is an Upstate nonprofit whose mission is to help farmers and related businesses. What makes us unique, is that many of our board members are farmers, and our director, Chris Harmon is a farmer as well. I think this gives CADE a real sense of what is needed and this makes us committed to building infrastructure that promotes a thriving agricultural community. For this reason, CADE has been working with local slaughterhouses and dairy processors so that they can help farmers create value added products and connect with the growing demand for local meats and dairy raised by small farmers.

My friend Liza from Food. Curated filmed a 2 part series on the potential, challenges and triumphs that face Upstate New York agriculture by exploring the inner workings of a new USDA slaughter plant and the reasons why plants like this are so important.

CADE (Part 1): Building Artisan Slaughterhouses to Feed the Demand for Grass-fed Meat from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

LIZA filming. She is one brave, amazing lady!

When Liza approached me about filming in a slaughterhouse I was really open to helping her tell the story of how meat becomes food and to also showcase the skill, talent and passion that goes into the work at an Artisan slaughterhouse. Truthfully, I was also a bit apprehensive. This is all very personal. The future success of my family’s farm rests on the simple fact that processors like Larry’s Custom Meats thrive. As a farm kid, I was teased about raising animals for food, “how can you do it?” kids would ask, as if knowing the animal I was eating made me cruel. I have always felt the opposite: that knowing the animal, respecting that it was once alive, and cherishing ALL it’s parts, was what was RIGHT. But, I am protective of farmers, and sometimes I wonder how much people really want to know about their food. I have witnessed slaughter many times, and it always makes me more committed to eating meat because it can be done in a way that is humane. So maybe I should have realized that transparency makes people aware and more comfortable.

When Liza went live with the video, I was so close to it all, I was almost afraid. I was afraid people would not be open to how transparent and generous Larry was in showing the whole process. I was also sensitive to the fact that this is Larry's livelihood and legacy. Thankfully, I was wrong, the thoughtful and appreciative comments show that people are earning to not only have a closer relationship with farmers like me, but also the folks that farmers depend on: processors and butchers.

Here is just one of many comments that the video has received:

"Thank you so much for sharing this story. I am a vegetarian but I still truly appreciate the hard work of people like Larry, who wish to treat animals with respect and to be transparent about their business so that meat-eaters can see the right way to slaughter and process animals. I hope that Larry's business thrives and that more people will follow his example!" -Ashley

For my sensitive readers this video is graphic but you will have a better understanding of what goes into the whole process of meat.

CADE (Part 2): The Good Slaughter: A Proud Meat Cutter Shares His Processing Floor from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

I find it very moving when people are appreciated for their talents and hard work, one of the reasons I am such a fan of Food Curated and the talented and passionate woman behind all the wonderful stories on the site. Liza was able to capture the humanity and thoughtfulness in the work that Larry does, a testament to her talent's as a filmmaker and story teller.

Also, please become a friend of CADE on facebook so you can connect with our work.

Spring

2011-04-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

A new mother. Did you know that a cow that has not had a calf is called a heifer but once she does she is called a cow? The rain has been intense which means better pasture later but right now it is muddy and the cattle are still shaggy with their excellent winter coats. The cattle are grazing what they can get out of the new spring pasture but they still need hay. Soon the pasture will be perfect.

My dad with our new ram lamb he is half Dorper. We are excited by what this meaty breed will bring to our herd. Thai the cat and my Irish Terrier Flynn

You can hear spring on the farm. The streams and ditches are filled with rushing water, and it has been raining almost every night. You can almost hear the grass growing, or wanting to grow, too. We have newly born lambs, many new calves and our sows are about to farrow. I really do love spring, so much possibility and life. The animals like spring too, there is a spring in their step, literally. Our cat Thai, went on a long walk with me yesterday which was very cute. He was not sure about our bull calves and started to meow loudly, which was his way of saying, enough: "Let's go home!" So we did, but not before I got some great pictures of our cows.

Homemade Breakfast Sausage with Sage

2011-03-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

Our pork has been a revelation! It is so darn good! This has been a long time coming, a porky collaboration between my father and I and I guess it makes me a farmer of sorts even though I am not living on the farm full time. After connecting with folks down in the city my parents are making monthly deliveries of our grass-fed beef, lamb and pastured pork. The system works really well and my dad still sells many of our animals wholesale but it is great to connect with the folks who want to buy directly from farmers. So if you are interested in purchasing some of our pork please contact my father and check out availability here. We are planning our next delivery at the end of March and I am going to be selling some meat out of my chest freezer here in Sunnyside, Queens.

We do not have our ground pork made into sausage because it is 1) a lot cheaper and 2) we like the idea of our customers using it for meatloaf, meatballs, dumplings or even making their own breakfast sausage like this easy and delicious preparation:

Homemade Fresh Breakfast Sausage with Sage
Ingredients

1 pound of ground pork (I used boar)
2 teaspoons of home dried sage
1-teaspoon sea salt
2 cloves garlic
¼ cup shallots (onion would work here too)
2 teaspoons dry sherry
Lots of freshly cracked pepper

Preparation:

In a food processor process shallots, garlic and sage until it is minced and almost paste-like.
Add shallot and garlic paste to ground pork, add salt, freshly cracked black pepper and 2 teaspoons of sherry.
Mix well. You want the pork sausage ingredients to be fully incorporated and take on a smooth texture.
Form into patties and fry in lard or olive oil.
You can make this in advance and keep in the fridge for a day or two to develop flavor or make it the fresh.
Also you can add any number of herbs and chili peppers you have on hand to change up the flavors. So simple and wholesome!

Fry the patties until browned. I like to fry mushrooms in the leftover fat. So good!

Thoughts on braising meats. Is broth necessary?

2011-03-03T08:50:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not my mom does not use broth when she braises. She just braises our meats in water for a few hours and what is the result? Insanely tender intensely flavored grass-fed meats. Do not get me wrong, I love broth braised meats (that is a mouthful!) and they can bring braised meats to another level of intensity but if you do not have homemade broth available they are not needed if your meat is of good quality. Grass-fed meats are at their best braised and the flavor profiles shine when they are braised simply.

I love this blog post by Michael Ruhlman that you should never ever use canned broth but use water instead. If you are not making the broth yourself do not bother. And I agree, and with good quality grass-fed meats this is especially true because they are filled with flavor already.

My mom made the most intensely flavored and decadent short ribs while I was staying on the farm last week. She browned them, seasoned them with salt and pepper, put them in the slow cooker for 8 hours with a few cups of water. They were incredible and the sauce was deep in flavor with lots glorious fat and perfect over our steamed homegrown potatoes.

Simple Braised Lamb Shanks with Wine

Ingredients:

1 onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4-cup carrot, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 lamb shanks
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
1 cup red wine
2-3 cups water
2 teaspoons of cornstarch

Preparation:

Season the lamb shanks, chop the vegetables and heat a Dutch oven at a medium high heat.
Add olive oil and brown shanks for about 7 minutes on all sides.
Remove shanks.
Add onions, garlic sauté for about 5 minutes.
Add vegetables sauté until soft.
re-ad Add shanks.
Add wine and water and bring to a boil and lower heat and braise for about two hours until tender.

To serve, remove lambs shanks and add cornstarch until sauce is thickened serve over boiled or mashed potatoes. Enjoy!

Not So Wordless Wednesday!

2011-02-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

I have been so busy lately that I have not had time to post. Apologizes! I have a fascinating writing job, writer's block and my family and I are starting to sell directly to the public! The writing block has not been that fun but working to market our meat directly has been a wonderful way to procrastinate. Thankfully, we have had a wonderful response from readers, tweeter friends, buying clubs and people who want to connect with the farmers that raise their food. My father even created a blog and I created a facebook page. Come on over and say hi!

Danish Pork Liver Pate

2011-01-16T06:40:00.000-08:00

If you follow me on twitter you might have noticed I have had obsession with liver pate lately. Yes, it is one of my favorite things. As a small child in Iceland, I liked nothing more than having danish-style liver pate on toast---and would bother my mother about having it ALL. THE. TIME. It was that good, or maybe I was an old little kid. Here, pate is considered fancy and not widely eaten but it can be the perfect lunch treat and is extremely nutrient dense.

My mom and I have been collaborating on creating the most authentic pate recipe and it has taken a while. We tried it with bacon, cognac and flour. But we liked this recipe best. It is extremely simple and we think it is perfect, the spices add a perfumed flavor to the truly decedent pate. You can add anchovies which would add a salty depth to the flavor but it is nice to keep the recipe pure if you are using pure ingredients. My father does not like salt(I know odd) so we made a salt-less version which came out extremely well too.

Grinding the lard

Danish Pork Liver Pate

Ingredients:
2.2 pounds pastured pork liver
2.2 pounds lard, cut up into one inch pieces
2 cups whole milk
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground all spice
freshly ground nutmeg about 1/4 teaspoon
freshly ground black pepper
salt(optional)
1 small yellow onion, grated or ground in grinder

Makes two large pate loaves.

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350
Our butcher cuts up the liver but you will need to cut up the lard so that it goes into the grinder smoothly.
Using a grinder(or you can use a food processor but grinding it creates a better texture) combine liver and lard and grind. We processed it twice but I think once on a fine setting would have been easier.
We then grinded the onion.
We mixed the grinded lard, liver and onion with milk and the ground spices together.
Using two meatloaf roasting pans add mixture. We placed the pans into a water bath of about an inch.
Bake for an hour at 350 degrees.
Enjoy!

Winter Scenes and Thoughts on Feeding Neighbors

2011-01-15T07:39:00.000-08:00

Beautiful winter skies.

Our handsome and gentle steers.

My Irish Terrier Flynn would follow me to the end of the earth he is so loyal. Our guinea boar who is spending his winter in the barn. He will be a stud soon. He is quite possibly one of the cutest pigs I have ever seen. Our sheep spend the winter in the barn which is open on one side. They do not like being outside like the cattle do in the winter months.

I must admit I love the winter. I love snow, but I especially love the blue topaz color the sky sometimes takes on. It might be rare but when it happens it is so gorgeous. I spent last week up on the farm helping my parents with farm business, cooking danish liver pate with my mom and I also went to a Grazing Conference hosted by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Delaware County and the Watershed Agricultural Council at SUNY DELHI. Our pork was served to over 140 people at the lunch ,which was a really neat experience. To think the pigs spent their whole life out on pasture only a few miles down the road gave the conference a sense of place and pride. So many people came up to us to thank us for raising the pork. What a nice feeling to feed people, especially one's neighbors, most of whom are farmers themselves.

Rural America has had little to be hopeful for, we have been losing farms, young people and economic investment and ultimately prosperity. However, there was a sense of hopefulness in the room that was palatable. It is moving to be part of it all, and even more exciting to think I might be able to make a go at farming myself.

Perfectly Roasted Bottom Round Roast with Garlic and Thyme

2011-01-03T13:31:00.000-08:00

I love roast beef and have found that even inexpensive cuts are excellent roasted---granted the bottom round roast is a tough cut it has great flavor. This recipe pairs one of my favorite herbs, thyme, with garlic, which compliments the flavor of our beef perfectly. I made this recently for a New Years brunch and served it with horseradish cream sauce but it is also excellent on it's own for dinner: think mashed potatoes and sauteed wild mushrooms as a side. A real crowd pleaser that is also easy on the wallet.

In a mortar and ground the garlic, thyme, salt and pepper.

I added the olive oil to the rub

I massaged the rub onto the roast and brought the roast to room temperature and then preheated the oven.

I cooked it to a medium rare and sliced it.

Perfectly Roasted Bottom Round Roast with Garlic and Thyme
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
3 cloves of garlic, minced and mashed
1 teaspoon dried or 1 tablespoon of fresh time thyme
1-2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 Top Sirloin, Blade or Bottom Round Roast(about 3 pounds)
Equipment: a meat thermometer.

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 425.
Meanwhile create rub with minced garlic, thyme, and kosher salt and olive oil, massage over meat.
Set aside and bring to room temperature(about 20 minutes).
Roast in hot oven for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 300 and cook for another 30-40 minutes. You want the internal temp at about 120-130. Let rest for 20 minutes under aluminum foil.
Enjoy!

Chopped Grass-fed Beef Liver

2010-12-27T09:25:00.000-08:00

Chopped Grass-fed Beef Liver

I have never been a fan of beef liver. There are other livers, much more delicate in taste, like rabbit and pork, that I love, but not beef. Recently, however, I tasted a beef liver recipe that had me hooked: grass-fed beef chopped liver. The secret? Lots of caramelized onions and a flavorful, good quality liver. At a board meeting and potluck for CADE, beef farmer Ken Jaffe brought his wife’s famous chopped liver. I was an instant fan. It was fluffy, layered in flavor and the grass-fed beef liver was delicious. The secret to this chopped liver is the caramelized onions. I tried it myself and it was really excellent! The Irishman was licking the bowl, food processor and all the spoons. We enjoyed it all week on sandwiches, and it is healthy too!

Liver is one of the most nutrient dense foods you can eat; it is also supposed to boost fertility. I recommend that if you are consuming liver, you consume liver from an animal that has had a clean life: no drugs please!

Linda’s Chopped Grass-fed Beef Liver

Ingredients:
1 pound grass-fed beef liver
4-5 yellow onions (about two pounds)
Lots of olive oil
5 medium eggs
Chicken fat
Preparation:

Sauté liver in olive oil till cooked thru. Do not overdo it; you don’t want the liver to be bloody. Remove and set aside.
Caramelize onions until soft and add olive oil as needed.
Hard boil 5 eggs, peel, and chop.
Cool everything (liver, onions and eggs).
Chop up the liver.
Combine onions, liver, and eggs.
Linda chops by hand in a wooden bowl and a curved chopper from her own Bubby. I used a food processor, making sure that the chopped liver still had a coarse fluffy texture (Do not overdo it).
Add mayo, salt and pepper to taste. (I did not add mayo because the onions had a lot of olive oil)
Linda also adds some chicken fat skimmed from soup, frozen and saved, or a chicken bullion cube dissolved in a tiny amount of water.
Serve on toasted bread or crackers.

Start with a good liver from a farmer you know! Most liver comes sliced.Fry gently in olive oil.
Hard boil eggs.
Caramelize onions.
Let cool then combine.

Portrait of Christmas

2010-12-25T07:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas is always white in the western Catskills. It is a blessing that a thick layer of snow blankets us in the winter months, because a thick layer of clouds also blankets us. Everything is white, the sky and the ground. For Christmas we took a drive around and a fresh coating of snow dusted the trees in a festive natural decoration. Merry Christmas!

2010 in Pictures!

2010-12-24T08:11:00.000-08:00

Looking at all my pictures makes me realize that I have had less time to take photos than other years. Being busy is good, but I really love to express the beauty of upstate new york with my photography so I am going to make a point to photograph more. My new year's resolution? To take more photos of cows! For real! What is your new year's resolution?

Happy Winter and Holidays from Spring Lake Farm!

2010-12-21T16:30:00.000-08:00

Cow butts

One of our Simmental crosses, doesn't she have the cutest ears?Feeding time on the farm. Hay is so yummy!

The white highland is our matriarch and many of our herd are related to her.

Flynn my Irish terrier is a pig wrangler, only problem is the pigs ignore him!

I am a happy pig!

In Iceland it is believed that farm animals can talk on Christmas because the power of the other realm(where the spirits, trolls and elves live) is stronger in the darkest part of the year . But a farmer must be careful not to overhear them, because if he or she does they will surely go mad. Thankfully, with the winter solstice behind us we can look forward to longer days and a decreased chance we overhear the animals talk. Happy Holidays!

Turkey Ramen

2010-11-27T11:44:00.000-08:00

My guy really likes Japanese-style ramen. His perfect day? Book shopping, followed by a big bowl of ramen in the East Village. Real ramen is an exalted Japanese comfort food that is all about the broth. I might not be able to compete with real Japanese ramen, but I love to make a Japanese-style broth after I have roasted a chicken to make use of the carcass. I was given the turkey carcass this Thanksgiving, so I thought, why not make ramen broth with it? It came out really well. Best part? My guy was very, very happy.

Turkey Ramen

Ingredients:
1-turkey carcass(from roasted bird)
water to cover carcass( ABOUT 2-3 quarts)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 leek(or 3-4 scallions)
Bulb of garlic, peeled.
Salt to taste (two teaspoons to begin with)
3 slices of fresh ginger
1- 16 once package rice noodles or Chukamen (raw Chinese noodles) cooked separately
2 boiled nice quality eggs
turkey skin or dark meat sauteed in soy sauce

Preparation:
Add turkey carcass to stock pot and cover with water.
Add leeks, garlic cloves, ginger, soy sauce and bring to a boil.
Lower heat and simmer for at least an hour but two hours is best.
You want the broth to be concentrated and flavorful. It should have depth of flavor(salt helps with this).
When broth is ready, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook noodles per instructions.
Also cook your eggs.
Saute turkey skin and meat in a skillet with soy sauce.
Assemble the ramen soups by adding the broth to a large soup bowl, then add cooked noodles, and garnish top with chopped scallions, nori, eggs, and sauteed leftover turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-24T12:59:00.000-08:00

Frankly, for me, Thanksgiving is all about the fall vegetables and I do go a bit over board. I go to Union Square or my local farmers market and load up on all the seasonal vegetables that they have. The list usually includes leeks, fennel, brussel sprouts, yams and kale.

On the menu this year: Buttered leeks, curried brussel sprouts, butter pecan yams, savoy cabbage with pine nuts, sauteed kale and mashed potatoes. The magic of Thanksgiving is a gravy so large it lasts for days and makes left overs as good as Thanksgiving dinner. Gravy has always been my job and my secret is to cook the turkey on top of a few carrots, celery ribs, an onion and a bay leaf and to start the stock with giblets and neck early by adding a lot of water, some salt and parsley.

Alton Brown from the food network has the best turkey recipe out there and it is quicker and moister then any other recipe I have tried and I have tried a lot. The secret is to cook the turkey at 500 degrees for 30 minutes and then reduce the heat to 350 and cook it for 2 and a half hours. I do not brine the turkey though, this takes away from it's natural flavor. I would rather flavor than moistness. We usually use sage, lemon, onions and whole peppercorns with our turkey but I can not say enough good things about this recipe in only 2 and a half hours you have the most moist turkey out there, which really lessons the stress level for the chef.

Here are some of my favorite sides:

Buttered Leeks

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter
1 lb leeks, trimmed
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:
Take off the tough outer leaves and trim off the very green part of the off the leek(it is very tough). With a sharp knife, place the leek on a flat surface and cut vertically in half. Leeks can harbor lots of dirt. I like to fan them out and run them under cold water making sure to get all the dirt out. You can also soak them in cold water and repeat a few times.
When the leeks are trimmed and washed chop them into 1 inch pieces. Place a frying pan over a medium heat, add the butter and let it melt – it needs to lightly coat the surface of the pan.
Add the leeks and saute for 15 minutes until the leeks become soft.
Season with salt and pepper.

Curried Brussel Sprouts
Ingredients:
1 pound brussel sprouts, halved
2 shallots, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 turmeric
1 cup frozen green peas
salt and pepper to taste.
1-2 tablespoons sour cream

Preparation:
I microwaved the brussel sprouts with a bit of water you should have a setting on your microwave for raw veggies. I think 2-4 minutes is sufficient.
In a skillet or pot add oil and shallots then spices, then add the peas.
Add cooked brussel sprouts and salt to taste, add the sour cream.
Enjoy!

Roasted Yams with Pecans
Ingredients:
3 large yams
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/3 cup pecan pieces
a pinch of salt

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel the potatoes, and cut them into small pieces.
Spread them out in a large baking sheet or roasting pan and pour the olive oil over the sweet potatoes---toss them until they are covered with the olive oil.
Cook, tossing occasionally, until they are tender about 25 minutes(if you make the pieces bigger cook for a bit more) .
Sprinkle with melted butter, brown sugar and pecans and bake for another 10 minutes... Enjoy!
*this is based on a Martha Stewart recipe . This is one of my favorite dishes. It is great with roast chicken as well.

Poor Gourmet, Thoughts on A Frugal Food Revolution

2010-11-15T06:34:00.000-08:00

image via Amy McCoy

I met Amy McCoy through twitter and instantly wanted to learn more about her. I was even more enamored after reading her blog. She has an approachable cooking style that respects the seasons and budget.

We are constantly inundated with information on what to buy and why, but Amy’s do-it-your-self approach is refreshing—it is more about empowering than judging and nudges one to cook more mindfully. Poor Girl Gourmet is filled with tasty and approachable recipes as well as advice on how to live a budget gourmet life. The idea is that buying less, growing more, and cooking are the keys to saving money. I can attest to this because I grew up without a lot of money. My mom was a painter and my father a farmer, but we always had excellent food. We had real butter and whole milk, and we sat down to dinner each night and connected with each other. My mom had a magical garden filled with tomatoes, squashes, corn, asparagus, strawberries, kiwis, and lettuces. My father raised lambs, rabbits and chickens for us. We ate off the land. It was not about fancy labels or buying things, but self-sufficiency and connection to the land.

A life centered around food need not only be about consumption. It can also be about what you make and what you can do for yourself. Amy’s book Poor Girl Gourmet (which she kindly sent to me) embodies this philosophy where simple frugality does not skimp on gourmet taste. I highly recommend this book as a gift for anyone who is trying to get friends or loved ones to cook more sustainably or to just cook more. It is a wonderful read and makes shopping at the farmer’s market for whole ingredients less intimidating. Last but not least are Amy’s recipes, all thoughtfully written and with maximum taste in mind.

Amy will be at Word bookstore in Greenpoint, Brooklyn this Saturday signing and talking about her book. I will be there. Will you join us?

Grass-fed Five Spice Beef

2010-10-31T07:34:00.000-07:00

Five Spice beef is a delicious Chinese appetizer where beef is braised in soy sauce and aromatic spices, chilled and then served thinly sliced. When we think of Chinese food we think of fast wok fried dishes, but there are a lot of great classic stewed beef dishes. The Chinese actually have a casserole tradition where stewed beef plays a central role: the beef is boiled and then braised in a fragrant mix of soy; garlic and spices like star anise for hours over a low flame and is served hot.

I do not claim authenticity with this dish because it is a mix of a few classic Chinese recipes and is my personal take on it. This dish can be served both hot and cold. The hot version is fantastic as a pot roast or served over rice. It is also great sliced thinly the next day and served cold for a lazy lunch.

Grass Fed Five Spice Beef

Ingredients:
3-pound pot roast or beef shins
3 cups water
1/3-cup soy sauce
¼ cup vermouth, sherry or rice wine
1 ½ tablespoon five spice powder
4 star anise
1 tablespoons garlic, minced
3-5 scallion stalks, roughly chopped
Salt and Sichuan peppercorns, to taste

Preparation:
In a heavy Dutch oven or pot over a high heat add soy sauce, wine, star anise, garlic, scallions ad five-spice powder. Bring to a boil.
Season beef. Place in pot in boiling simmering sauce and bring to a boil for ten minutes. Then reduce to low heat and cook for 2 hours.
Serve hot over rice or chilled thinly sliced the next day after refrigerating it.

I added the liquid and brought it to a boil.

I chopped up the scallions, minced the garlic and the fresh ginger.

I then added the five spice powder.
Our pot roast is not that big.I seasoned the meat.
I then placed the meat into the simmering liquid and brought it up to a boil for ten minutes.
I then reduced the heat and braised the meat for about 2 hours.
Until it was fork tender. I served it sliced over rice for dinner and then served it cold the next day for lunch. A perfect two meals in one pot! Enjoy!

Chinese-Style Blue Crabs with Scallion and Ginger Sauce

2010-10-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Blue crabs have made an appearance at our fish market. One of my favorite ways of eating blue crab is the preparation they do at Hop Kee in Chinatown. Bionic Bites did a great blog post about the Cantonese restaurant and she is right their saucy crabs are fantastic. While I wanted to make Cantonese-style crabs, I thought I might try to recreate the ginger scallion crabs we had in San Francisco. There, we had dungeness crab, but I thought it would be good with blue crab as well, and thankfully I was right. This dish is finger-licking good!

If you are a crab lover, I recommend this dish, but my guy does not really “get” crab. Something about the way they look and all the effort you have to put into eating the crustacean. I could not disagree more, but this dish really is for those that love crab because there is no elegant way to eat this dish. The savory sauce plays off the fantastically sweet crab flesh so well but it is messy. Messy good, but I felt obligated to warn you!

Cleaning the live crabs requires a bit of bravery. I actually chickened out and had the fish guy do it for me. There are a lot of YouTube videos about cleaning crabs as well and next time I feel like I will be brave enough. It's recommended that you kill the crab yourself because they spoil very quickly but I live so close to the fish store I did not feel it was a food safety issue. Next time I will be more brave I promise!

Chinese-Style Blue Crabs with Scallion and Ginger Sauce

Ingredients
6 live blue crabs, cleaned to your liking and halved (I discarded the tops)
½(or more) cup corn or potato starch, enough to coat the crabs generously
Sea salt to season the crabs after they have been dredged
1 cup oil
5 scallions, tops and bottoms removed and sliced in half then cut up in fours
2 -1 inch pieces of ginger, julienned
5 small cloves of garlic, minced
About two tablespoons of sherry, rice wine or dry vermouth( a few glugs)
About two tablespoons of soy sauce (I used braggs as I am gluten free{a few generous splashes})

Preparation:

I did not clean the crabs that much, but you can if you are squeamish, I halved them and gently crushed the claws so that they would be easier to eat.

I dredged them heavily in potato flour and salted them with sea salt

In a very very hot wok I fried them. Making sure I did not crowd them. Flipping them over twice. I am reticent to give times on this because everyone's stove is different. You want to make sure they are cooked through. After they were done, I let them rest while I cut up the ginger, and garlic and scallions.I emptied the wok of the oil and added a few tablespoons back. Then I added the scallions, ginger and garlic. When they became fragrant I added the rice wine and soy sauce. Then I added the crabs back into the wok and tossed them until they were completely incorporated into the sauce. The potato starch will thicken the sauce. Enjoy!
I plated them and served them with soft jasmine rice and garnished them with cilantro. This serves two to four people depending on how many dishes you make to accompany this dish. Enjoy!

New Piglets, Potato Harvest and a Zucchini Bake

2010-10-06T05:44:00.000-07:00

The sows all get their own hut, one just had a load of very cute piglets. They like to huddle in the hut and run around with their mama and graze.

It is surprising how small but fast they are.

Potatoes in the ground

My harvest on a rainy day

Mom's zucchini bake

My mom and I garden together. I help with planting and harvest which is actually quite fun. Also, we love to go over seeds together in the winter. The potatoes are my favorite because I love, love new potatoes. We had planned to harvest them all this week but we felt they might benefit from a few more weeks in the ground. So, I harvested a few and also dug up some beets, Japaneses bunching onions, garlic and shallots along with zucchini some of which were pretty over grown. My mom makes a very delicate and delicious gluten free zucchini bake with eggs, Parmesan and grated "monster" zucchini. Fantastic, last night she did not add the Parmesan and it was even more delicious! Perfect for a dressed up lunch or a side for dinner.

Zucchini Bake

Ingredients:
3-4 cups of grated zucchini(you can use large ones for this)
4 eggs
salt
Parmesan(optional)
olive oil

Preparation:
Grate zucchini and drain.
In a large skillet saute zucchini in olive oil until soft. About ten minutes let cool.
preheat oven to 350
In a pretty baking dish place cooked zucchini
beat 4 eggs
pour eggs over zucchini
cook for 30-40 minutes at 350 until the top is golden brown
enjoy!

Fall and One Last Grilled Steak

2010-10-05T06:25:00.000-07:00

Fall is here. We peaked early and most of the bright leaves were knocked down by a heavy rain, that is ok, my favorite part of the fall is not the foliage but the moody colors it brings to the landscape. After all the leaves are gone the mountains take on a purple color which I love. My father is putting the sheep in with our cattle and it is always amazes me how different their grazing behavior is. The cattle are eating more and more hay because our pasture is letting up as we transition into fall but the sheep are content to graze .

The herbs in my garden are still going strong, so I have been making use of them in almost every dish while I can. Just the other night we made grilled grass-fed sirloin, marinated in olive oil, herbs and garlic and then quickly grilled. It was so good. Sirloin is a great cut if you want the steak experience but do not want to pay as much as you would for a porterhouse.

The sirloin was very tender and because it is such a large cut we had leftover for breakfast the next day. I simply prepared a large sweet onion with balsamic vinegar and MORE fresh herbs and some fried eggs. Delightful and filling! Mom would fry up the leftover steak with potatoes or rice for lunch the next day too.

Grilled Sirloin Steak with Garlic and Herbs

Ingredients:
1 sirloin steak with bone
a handful of herbs such as thyme, chives, parsley, oregano and sage
1 garlic clove
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to season steak
Preparation:
In a food processor process herbs and garlic with oil.
Season steak well,
cover with herb oil and marinate for a few hours.
Make sure to bring steak to room temperature.
Grill quickly on grill about 2-3 minutes on each side.
Let rest. Enjoy!

Roasted Tomato and Summer Squash

2010-09-12T09:02:00.000-07:00

Yellow tomatoes, green and yellow summer squash before being put in the oven!

Fall is here and there is a vigorous chill in the air. Everything seems fresher----yes, it is a bit bitter sweet. Yet, we are in a special window right now, were we can still enjoy tomatoes and corn but because of the cooler evening roasting seems a natural way to prepare the seasonal bounty. Up at the farm, because we have such cool evenings (it gets as cool as 50 degrees at night) roasting new potatoes, zucchini and tomatoes is something my mom does every night.

However, roasting vegetables is the LAST thing I can think of doing here in Queens. After living at the bottom of a townhouse in Manhattan for almost 1o years,(living happily without air conditioning)--- I jumped at the opportunity of living on a top floor light (yes, YES!) filled apartment, the only down fall? It is very extremely hot in the summer, and an AC unit is a must. Roasting in the summer is not something I am inclined to do which is fine, but now there is nothing stopping from recreating my mom's signature summer vegetable "gratin." All you need is tomatoes, summer squash, garlic, olive oil, herbs and a bit of Parmesan: so perfect and easy. Roast for about 35 minutes at 375. And you have yourself the perfect summer meets fall side dish!

Mom's Roasted Tomato Gratin

Ingredients:
tomatoes
summer squash
garlic,
olive oil,
herbs (what ever you have on hand)
grated Parmesan
salt to taste
Preparation:
Slice vegetables and stack, drizzle with olive oil, chopped garlic and herbs. Add salt, toss if you like, then grate Parmesan over vegetables.
Roast for about 35 minutes at 375.
Enjoy!

Grilled Grassfed Steak with Farm Girl Bearnaise!

2010-09-05T06:18:00.000-07:00

Grilling steak in my home has become a team effort--romantic even. This is fun, and in many cases the Irishman is the one at the grill. He finds that charcoal works really well with our thin cut grass-fed steaks. We season the steak with salt and pepper and grill it fast, only a few minutes on each side and then let it rest for about 10 minutes before we serve it. Here we grilled a T-bone. I love to do sauces when the weather gets a bit colder but in all honestly our steak can stand on it's own. Our beef is also well marbled, so the Bearnaise sauce might have been a bit of an over kill but it was extremely good with the boiled potatoes and steamed fresh vegetables: a perfect decadent feast.

This "Steak with Bearnaise" is a nice summer meets fall meal, and I love how the fresh chives and tarragon brighten up the sauce. The reason I termed this "farm girl Bearnaise" is because I used what I had on hand. I dislike having too many vinegars in my pantry and always try to have apple cider vinegar on hand--- it is my favorite vinegar in dressing and the sauce turned out lovely.

Farm Girl Bearnaise

Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar(other light colored vinegars work too)
1 teaspoon of tarragon, minced
1 teaspoon of fresh chives, minced
half a stick of butter, melted
1 egg yolk*
salt to taste

special equipment: double boiler

Preparation:
Heat double boiler, when it is boiling
add vinegar and herbs,
whisk in egg yolk
then whisk in butter.
Enjoy!

*you need to be careful with raw eggs. I use our own eggs for preparations like this.

Cow moments on the pasture!

2010-08-30T16:05:00.000-07:00

And these little piggies liked to eat grass...

2010-08-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

We have put the piglets out on a very large pasture. You will find them "grazing" most of the day. I still can not get over how cute they are, but they look very happy. Interestingly, they keep their pig mobile feeder pristine; it looks like the inside of a well kept house!

Gluten-free Grass-fed Chicken Fried Steak

2010-08-09T10:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of those days. I had skipped lunch and was running around giving farm tours. I knew I had cubed steaks defrosting in the fridge and I thought. Why not go all out? As a big fan of fried chicken, crispy deep fried deliciousness is something I can not get that often now that I am gluten-free. And yes, I do miss it. I have to indulge every once in a while and cook something deep fried myself and this steak recipes certainly hit the spot! The crust was so crispy, peppery and the milk gravy perfect over the new potatoes and green beans. Did not hurt that this down home meal was all grown on the farm, with the exception of the gluten free flour!

Gluten-free chicken fried steak

Ingredients:
4 cubed steaks, or four slices of top round, tenderized
1 cup of gluten free flour, more if needed of gluten free flour
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper(fresh)
2/3 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup oil(this is a lot of oil you can use less if you do not want to waste I used olive oil/canola oil mix)

equipment: cast iron skillet

For gravy:
2 tablespoons oil from frying
3 tablespoon gluten free flour(you can use the extra from dipping if you have some extra)
1 cup milk
1/2 cup chicken broth
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Preparation
Our processor "cubes" the steaks for us, so they are already tenderized. You can do this your self with a top round roast as well. Season steaks with salt and freshly cracked pepper. This dish is all about the pepper!
On a plate add a cup of gluten free flour and season with paprika, salt and pepper.
In another shallow bowl add egg and milk. Whisk.
Take the steak and dredge in flour mixture then egg wash. Dredge again in flour mixture, then again in eggwash and then one last time in flour mixture.
Heat oil in a cast iron skillet on a medium high heat, fry steak for about 3 minutes on each side. Put on a warmed plate with paper towels.
Meanwhile, to make the gravy you will need 2 tablespoons of the oil you fried the steak in. Add the flour and whisk, add chicken broth, bring to a boil and whisk briskly then add milk. Season with salt and pepper. Enjoy!
I served these with boiled fingerling potatoes and fried green beans. Everything was grown on our farm except for the gluten free flour!

Broiled Eggplant, Tomato and Feta Salad

2010-08-04T14:38:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite foods are sliced eggplant, marinated and then grilled or broiled. They are extremely versatile: you can use them in an eggplant Parmesan or in a showstopping hero, with aged Parmesan cheese and arugula or an open faced sandwich with ham. Here, I marinated them in lemon, which was a perfect compliment to the summer ripe tomato and salty feta. It was so hot in the apartment that the salad became warm on it's own which made it even better! I just drizzled olive oil over it and served it with my mom's "curry rice" and we had ourselves a feast fit for a hot summer night. I went a bit over board with the feta but because I am gluten free, I can only eat homemade pizza so I felt that the extra feta was somehow allowed. Speaking of gluten free cooking, this vegetable stack salad was inspired by the Dish Towel Dairies which is a new blog all about gluten free cooking! Check it out!

Broiled Eggplants

Ingredients:
2 pound eggplant, sliced
salt the eggplant on both sides and use a paper towel to soak up water
juice of one lemon(you can also use red wine vinegar)
1/4 cup of olive oil
Preparation:
Broil for about 10 minutes on each side.

Curry rice:

Ingredients:
1 cup brown basmanti rice
1 onion, diced
olive oil
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 chicken bullion(of good quality)
2 cups water
Preparation:
In a pot saute onions until soft.
Add curry powder and turmeric and then rice. Brown.
Dissolve the bouillon in water.
Add to rice and cook as you normally would rice.

Disclosure: Silvana Nardone is a client of my sister and I's company Sheepdog Print and Design, LLC.

Fried Rice with Zucchini, Sweet Onion and Corn

2010-07-25T15:59:00.000-07:00

Zucchini is one of those vegetables I could eat for dinner every day for a whole week. Must be a throw back from my youth when we actually did eat zucchini every night for the month of august. It just makes me feel like it is summer. A secret to make the zucchini seem different is to cook it for a long time in olive oil until it becomes caramelized. It gets soft and sweet. Supposedly this is how the Italians do it for pasta, so I do it this way too. It is excellent in this fried rice dish which can be served for dinner or lunch with a nice salad and you have yourself a feast!

Fried Rice with Zucchini, Sweet Onion and Corn

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked rice
2 cups water
cook as you would normally
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic
one ear of corn, cooked and cut of cob
3 tablespoons of soy sauce(i use gluten-free)
3 eggs(i like it eggy)
Preparation:
Prepare the rice as you normally would. Meanwhile, dice the zucchini, if the corn is not cooked you will want to boil water to cook it or microwave the corn.
In a large heavy pan you want to saute on a medium heat the zucchini until it is soft and almost caramelized. I like to do this for almost 15 minutes so that they get really soft.
Add onions, garlic 10 minutes in.
Add rice, eggs and soy sauce. Mix throughout and cook. Enjoy!

Rice Noodles with Grass-fed Ground Beef, Onions, Green Peppers and Sichuan Peppercorns

2010-07-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the best defense against the urge to eat out is having a stocked pantry. Having frozen beef in the freezer is another bonus and with a bit of skill and inspiration you can have dinner on the table in a few minutes. This dish was one of those eureka moments, where I created a quick but fantastic meal with the ingredients I had on had. One of my favorite meals are Japanese -style ground chicken over rice. They marinate the chicken in rice wine and soy sauce and I was thinking beef would be fantastic this way too, and instead of rice I used noodles. I had picked up fresh green peppers and onion at my neighbor's vegetable stand and they were a fantastic compliment. The sichuan peppercorns takes this dish to a another level with their spicy perfume flavor. So good. And easy.

Rice Noodles with Grass-fed Ground Beef, Onions, Green Peppers and Sichuan Peppercorns

Ingredients:
1- package rice noodles cooked as instructed
1 pound of ground beef, thawed
2 tablespoons sherry or rice wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
olive oil to cover pan
1 small onion sliced
3- fresh green peppers, sliced
1 teaspoon of crushed sichuan peppercorns
Preparation:
This picture is a bit messy looking. I was making a dinner for my parents, and because of the late nights my father is pulling.
Marinate the beef with sherry, soy sauce and salt.
In a large skillet or wok heat oil and add onion. Then beef brown. Add green peppers, saute.
Add cooked rice noodles, then crushed sichuan peppercorns. Toss and heat through.Enjoy!

Summer Bounty: Cucumbers with Scallion Oil

2010-07-22T06:17:00.001-07:00

The Irishman and I are spending the summer upstate: it is lovely, romantic and delicious. One of my favorite parts of the summer are the lovely self-serve vegetable stands that populate the roadsides. Currently, they are filled with squash, beans, zucchini, potatoes and flowers. Not only are the reasonable they are really convenient: proof that local food can be accessible because it is inexpensive and convenient. I seem to be in a Chinese mode lately, and this is not by mistake because they sure now how to make vegetables stand out. This dish is inspired by a dish that I love at the Grand Sichuan(special thanks to Robyn from the Girl Who Ate Everything for introducing me to it!) This dish is pretty addictive and excellent with rice.

Cucumbers with Scallion Oil

Ingredients:
1-2 pound cucumbers, sliced to your liking
For the scallion oil you will need
four scallions
1 clove of garlic(optional)
1-1 inch piece of ginger
1 cup of olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
preparation:
in a food processor combine scallions, ginger, garlic and oil and salt.
process until completely blended.
in a small pot bring to a simmer, cook for 1-2 minutes.
pour 4-5 tablespoons of scallion oil over cucumbers.
you will have enough for another serving left.
enjoy!

Cumin Crusted Grass-fed Steak

2010-07-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite budget friendly restaurants is the Grand Sichuan, their "Cumin Beef" is one of the most unusual but addictive dishes. This steak is inspired by this dish! You can use any steak for this dish but I am a big fan of the top round London broil steak, it is budget friendly, beefy and makes a great steak for a crowd. Serve it with mashed potatoes or boiled new potatoes!

Cumin Crusted Grass-fed Steak

Ingredients:
1 grass-fed top round London broil steak(2-3 pounds)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 tablespoon ground coriander
2 tablespoons ground cumin
toasted sesame oil to season
Preparation:
Mix above ingredients, except sesame oil, and marinate steak for at least two hours or up to a day.
Grill as you normally would a grassfed steak at a low heat, to an internal temperature of about 120 for about 10 minutes each side(this is dependent on your steak thickness and your grill heat).
Let rest before slicing against grain.
Serve with sweet onion and cilantro.Drizzle with sesame oil.
Enjoy!

Crispy Salt and Pepper Soft Shell Crab

2010-07-12T04:02:00.000-07:00

Truth be told, if you are going to make soft shell crab I recommend sauteing it over deep frying but if you are gluten free like we are in my home then this crispy batter is a real treat. I love soft shell crab and I love salt and pepper squid that has become really popular at Chinese restaurants and I thought putting them together would be perfect. I certainly prefer them gently sauteed in butter because it brings out the subtle ocean flavors in the crab but this is a great alternative to sauteing them in butter and because soft shell crab are in season why not try a few preparations? Serve this dish with rice and a stir fried Chinese cabbage and you have yourself a Chinese feast!

Crispy Salt and Pepper Soft Shell Crab

Ingredients:
3-4 soft shell crabs, very fresh(best live) and cleaned
1/4 cup corn or potato starch
1/4 cup flour(I used a gluten free Bob's Mill flour but your own mix is fine too)
1/4 cup seltzer water plus 2 tablespoons or until it is smooth. Be careful it goes from lumpy to wet very quickly!
1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 garlic cloves sliced,
1 green hot chili(just as jalapeno)
Canola oil to fry

Equipment: I love, love my fry daddy. It is so easy and uses less oil then frying it on your stove. I have fond memories of my mother and I making shrimp tempura together with our fry daddy. So easy and fun.

Preparation:
Ok so heat up some oil. I use canola. About 3-4 cups.
Then, mix the flour and starch together. Add pepper and salt and then add the seltzer.
Dip the craps into the hot oil and fry until crispy. You will want to do batches. Do not crowd them folks!
Remove and drain on paper towels.
Briefly fry garlic and chilies.
This goes REALLY well with a chilled floral white wine! Yum! My new favorite value is Ironstone's 2008 Obsession Symphony

Playing with fire

2010-07-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

My man and I have a shared love of fire. Thankfully, he is a strong guy and seems to have taken to splitting wood because I do not think I could manage it myself. The mountains cool down in the evening and lighting a fire in the summer is a welcome addition to a romantic evening spent outside. In fact, we have made a habit of starting a fire regardless of the season: Fall, Winter and Summer. We have yet to master cooking on the fire but this summer we hope to expand our knowledge of what woods work best and when the ambers are best to grill on. We have found cooking potatoes in foil to be a great way to create a simple dinner and when served along with a big summer salad it is great light meal. Two of our favorites are lemon potato pockets which are lighter then this creamy blue cheese version. For the lemon potatoes you add 2-3 pounds of potatoes(sliced), 1/2 cup water, juice of one lemon, olive oil and some chives--salt is optional because the lemon really hits the same taste buds.

I know my readers are so talented so if any of you have any advice on cooking over a fire please feel free to comment! Hope you all have great things planned for the summer too!

Blue Cheese Potato Pockets

Ingredients:
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
3/4 cup of half and half
1-2 tablespoons of sliced butter
2 pounds of potatoes, sliced
Preparation: You will need aluminum foil for this, I know aluminum is not that environmentally friendly but I use it sparingly. Also, you can use left over tin foil(washed of coarse) too which my mother does.
You will want to wash and slice the potatoes, place them in a sheet of foil, making sure it is large enough make into a pocket. Add half and half, blue cheese and butter, fold or scrunch into a pocket.
Grill over ambers or charcoal for about 30 minutes until they are tender.

Grilling the perfect grass-fed steak

2010-07-01T04:31:00.000-07:00

Having an Icelandic father had it's advantages. The man had no interest in the grill, so it was my sole provenance. I was grilling dinners early and by ten I was cooking for the family on my own, thankfully my parents have always been very supportive of my obsession--- and in hind sight I can see why, because I cooked a lot of dinners during the summer months which must have come in handy while they were pulling long hours haying.

We had both a gas grill and a charcoal grill. I actually really like gas grills because I think they are a bit less wasteful but in reality charcoal is best when you are grilling things like BBQ chicken or something slower. For those who read my blog a lot you might come to realize that I am not one to fuss over food. I like to start out with good ingredients and make it simple. My philosophy on grilling is the same.

Now that summer is in full swing and with the holiday weekend upon us, grilling meat, and most likely steak, is on our minds. For those of us that are lucky enough to have our own grass-fed steaks, or know a farmer we buy them from grilling steaks takes on a whole other level. For all the talk about how different grass-fed beef is to cook, it really just takes a bit of confidence and some ground rules. And my best advice is that you treat it gently. No need to be intimidated!

Grass-fed beef as a rule will have more flavor and is, for lack of a better word, beefier. The meat will have an herbaceous flavor because the grasses in a cow’s diet lend their flavors to it. Much like wine, pastured meats will take on the flavor of their terroir, the French word for place. The sun, grasses, breed and farmer’s methods create a unique flavor profile specific to the region and farm. Many have said that upstate New York’s grasses create excellent beef, which I have to agree with.

My father prefers to taste his beef and likes simple seasonings to celebrate the flavors of our beef. He doesn't even use salt, although I do. If I have a lot of guests, I will sometimes cook a homemade sauce to accompany the beef. Bearnaise with fresh tarragon is always a hit! A lot of beef purists do not serve sauces with their steaks but I like sauces because they extend portions and this is helpful because grass-fed meats can be pricier.

To rub or not to rub? That is the question. I am also a big fan of homemade spice rubs. And if you have a freezer full of beef I think they do come in handy. They are great on sirloins and think they are best on the steaks that have more fat. Also, grass-fed beef has a lot of flavor so bold flavors go well them too. But again, there is a lot of room for debate on this issue and this is where you can be creative!

TIPS ON HOW TO GRILL THE PERFECT GRASS-FED STEAK

Treat it gently; you will want to cook it at a lower heat, for a shorter time, to a rarer doneness.
If the steaks are frozen you will need to defrost them. I like to put them in a bowl in the fridge one day before I grill them. You can also defrost them by placing them in a plastic bag in a large bowl of cold water for about an hour. I do not recommend defrosting steaks in the microwave.
Season with salt and pepper and drizzle some olive oil over the steak.
You will want to bring the steak up to room temperature. So let them rest for about ½ hour before you put them on the grill.
Remember, grass-fed steak is best when it is medium-rare to rare. You will have to be more vigilant on the grill for this reason.
Preheat the grill. Do not use forks to flip your meat. Juices are precious, use tongs instead. Flip the steak at least once.
The best way to measure doneness is by pressing gently down on the steak to see how firm it feels. This takes some finesse but is easily learned. You want the steak to be beautifully browned, and it will become firmer as it cooks.
Let the meat rest for 5-10 minutes under foil after you have cooked it. Please note that the meat will continue to cook; do not slice the meat until you have let it rest.
With these simple rules you will be grilling your local beef to perfection this summer!

The Pig-mobile and thoughts on eating animals.

2010-06-30T05:07:00.000-07:00

My father has built a pig-mobile. The hope is that we can put the piglets out on pasture when they are a bit older and then move the pig feeder all over our pastures. Pigs like to use their snouts to root for goodies under the ground so their "animal impact" will not be as intense because of the movement and they will also help fertilize our fields. My father is a pretty talented carpenter and he also loves to design things. Hopefully this will work out well!

The cuteness of the piglets are giving me some pause. I have never had qualms about eating the animals we raise but these guys are seriously cute. Not to say that lambs and calves aren't ,but I have to say piglets are pretty charming. With this said, we are providing them with a great life so I can take comfort in that. As a kid I was teased about the fact that we ate the animals we knew. Incredibly, here in America, we like to think that our food comes boneless, wrapped in plastic and served to us as lean protein and those that actually confront it are barbaric or cruel. There is definitely a change happening, but as a whole we are pretty removed from the process of raising and butchering meat.

Farming animals is an interesting thing: it is complicated, beautiful and rewarding. I think this is why farmers, as a rule, get so defensive when animal rightists start to talk about farming. We take on a lot of responsibility for our animals and it is never easy to take them to market or the slaughterhouse. It may not be easy, but farming animals is a tradition I am very proud my family participates in, even if I have to think a bit about why sometimes.

Brisket braised with ancho and chipotle chilies

2010-06-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

For those of you who thought that summer was a time to put away your dutch ovens or slow cookers, I say not so fast! Believe it or not, braised meats can be a summer time treat too! Look no further then this simple recipe that can be used in numerous Mexican inspired dishes like tacos, burritos, enchiladas or even tostada salads. The list goes on and on. Not only that, it is very simple and gets better with time.

As a newly minted Queens resident I have access to some of the best dried chilies and jumped at the chance of using them with my family's grass-fed beef. I recommend you go to your local Mexican or Latin grocery and stock up on chilies. They are not that expensive and really add a wonderful flavor to beef. Also, if they have a smoked ancho chili grab it. It will be delicious!

Brisket braised with ancho and chipotle chilies
Ingredients:
2-3 pound brisket
salt and cracked fresh pepper to taste
1 dried ancho chili
2 dried chipotle chilies
3 cloves of garlic
1 large onion, sliced
1 cup water or beef broth(use homemade!)
1 teaspoon salt(optional if you are using broth)
Preparation:
In a heavy pot such as a dutch oven; heat it to a medium high heat, add an oil or fat you have on hand. I used bacon fat.
Season the brisket with salt and pepper add to pot and brown on all sides. This takes about 10 to 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, break up the chillies( you can get rid of the seeds if you wish). I ground them in my spice grinder with a bit of olive oil and garlic. You can soak them in hot water too. No wrong way!
When the brisket is browned, reduce the heat and add the onion; move around a bit.
Then add the beef broth, chilies and garlic.
Lower heat and braise for about 3 hours.
When the briskets has cooled break up the meat with your hands and pour the meat juices over the meat.
Enjoy!

Cow Moms

2010-06-02T14:42:00.000-07:00

Mothers. They are important to us and on our farm we breed for mothering ability just like we do other important traits. Good mama cows are the foundation of our herd and farm (thankfully being a good mother is a natural and strong instinct). In fact, on beef farms ---even on conventional cow/calf operations--calves are kept with their mamas until they are weaned. The difference is we finish our steers on grass and they send/sell theirs to a feedlot. On our farm we do not even wean the calves(we only wean the bulls we are keeping for breeding) because my father feels that the cattle naturally wean themselves. Also, the older cows teach the young cattle to graze which is an added benefit not to mention how sweet it is to see cows take care of their calves.

Grilled Grassfed London Broil

2010-05-31T08:52:00.000-07:00

London broil is one of my favorite summer-time meals: it is lean, inexpensive and has a great beef flavor that stands up to marinades. Also, because it is a tougher cut it benefits from being marinaded and I love to experiment with new flavors. It makes for an elegant grilled dinner and is prefect for entertaining because when it is sliced it is gorgeous and there is a lot of meat. Also, men love it.. For some reason I always get a lot of compliments from guys on this dish. I am not sure why, maybe because it is so beefy or they just love steak.

It goes along well with a large summer salad and mashed or boiled new potatoes. Last night we made a huge salad with red leaf lettuce, sweet onion and radishes with a bright vinaigrette that we seasoned with a bit of sea salt. Here I marinated the London broil with coriander, soy sauce and lime juice. I sliced the steak and served it with sweet onion and cilantro. Very good! Another favorite marinade is with tomato paste and fresh herbs. The tomato really compliments the flavor of the beef as well.

Marinated London Broil with Coriander

Ingredients:
2 LB London broil (which is a top round/flank steak cut up into a large steak)
salt and pepper to season steak
2 teaspoons of ground coriander
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
1 garlic, minced
For garnish:
chopped up cilantro
sweet onion(such as Vidalia) slice thinly
Preparation:
1-2 days before you grill the steak. Season the steak and place it in a glass container with the marinade. Flip it a few times.
To grill the steak bring to room temperature.
Preheat the grill.
Add the steak to the grill.
Let it grill for about 8 minutes(this is a ball park all steaks and grills are different)
Flip the steak(please use tongs juices are precious).
Grill until done.To test doneness you will want to press down on the steak to see how firm it is. Remember grass-fed beef is better rarer.
Let the steak rest under foil after you have grilled it for about 10 minutes. Do not cut the steak until you are serving it.
Slice the London broil against the grain, thinly.
Garnish with sweet onion and fresh cilantro.
Enjoy!

And then there were piglets!

2010-05-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

Home Fried Potatoes

2010-05-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

Planning weekends upstate is a favorite past time of mine. I love shopping and menu planning but some weekends I come unprepared and home fries always come to my rescue. Potatoes keep well and are the perfect breakfast accompaniment for fried eggs. Also, I love to add whatever herb is doing well in our herb patch; chives do well all growing season up here in the cool Catskill mountains. Home fries are simple, good but extremely filling. Good thing we have a 10 mile bike ride to the farm in front of us and a day of planting potatoes!

Home Fried Potatoes with Fresh Chives

Ingredients:
1 pound cooked potatoes
fat to cover the pan such as bacon or duck fat, olive or canola oil
seasoning of your choice(I used a Cajun spice mix)
1 teaspoon of corn starch
salt
fresh chives, chopped
Preparation:
In a heavy skilled heat oil or fat with a medium high heat.
Add potatoes and chop up with utensil.
Cook until browned.
Add seasoning and corn starch
brown some more.
Add chives and season with salt.
Enjoy!

Steamed Clams with Bacon and Cream

2010-05-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

Spying a bundle of beautiful looking clams at the local market I grabbed them not knowing exactly what I would make with them. I have always loved chowder but the dry heat had me thinking a thick soup might not compliment the summer-like weather. I decided to treat the clams a bit like mussels but add some chowder inspired flavors. It came out really well, a bit salty, but perfect after a day of lawn work. I did not have white wine in the house so I used whiskey which worked well. Even though this dish has bacon and cream it is surprisingly light and on top of that it is extremely easy to prepare. This dish is great with a nice crusty bread or french fries.

Steamed Clams with Bacon and Cream

serves 2

Ingredients:
1- bunch of clams(about 40) cleaned
2 slices of bacon, sliced(this will make your dish very salty)
3 shallots, minced
handful of chives for cooking and garnish
3/4 cup of water
2 tablespoons of whiskey
3 tablespoons of cream

Preparation:
to clean the clams you will want to soak them in cold water for 2 hours in a large bowl or pot changing the water a few times. After you have soaked them you will want to clean them with a brush or a towel.
In a large pot brown the bacon, add the shallots and chives and saute until soft and fragrant.
Add whiskey, then water and bring to a boil.
Add cleaned clams making sure to discard and broken clams.
Cover pot with lid and steam the clams for 5-10 minutes.
Do not over cook but you want the clams open. *
Add cream and garnish with chives.
Enjoy!
*if a clam does not open after steaming do not eat it!

Cellophane Noodles with Short Ribs and Wild Mint

2010-05-21T13:21:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not but leftover short ribs are fantastic in Chinese stir fries: the perfect compliment to whatever green you have on hand or even with noodles. Today, I went for a walk and picked some wild mint which I added to this dish and it came out really well. One of my favorite Chinese dishes is a very spicy pork with cellophane noodles but I have found that leftover short ribs can be just as good as the pork. My mom prepares short ribs really simply so that they were perfectly beefy in this dish. I like to prepare our beef shins and short ribs in a Chinese manner sometimes and find that they are incredible stir fried with any season vegetable when I am preparing leftovers.

Cellophane Noodles with Short Ribs and Wild Mint

Ingredients:
4 bundles of cellophane noodles, soaked in boiling water
1 cup left over braised short ribs, chopped up
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, pealed and grated or minced
1/4 cup of soy sauce
2 hand fulls of fresh mint
for some heat add fresh chilies or chili sauce

Preparation:
Boil water and then soak the noodles in water.
Meanwhile remove meat from bone and chop. You can keep as much of the fat as you like. I like to keep as much as possible.
Mince the garlic and ginger. Chop the mint.
In a heavy bottomed skillet or wok add a bit of oil.
Add beef and cook until soft. Add garlic and ginger.
Add the soaked noodles.
Add soy sauce and chili sauce.
Toss then add mint.
Serve and enjoy!

Soft Shell Crabs with Burnt Butter

2010-05-15T06:40:00.000-07:00

In the mist of my whirlwind move I have been cooking up a storm but taking photos of what I have cooked has been a bit challenging, and in the blog world, if you do not take a picture of it did you really cook it? A new client has forced me into the kitchen with my camera and it is nice to be in the cooking AND photo-taking grove once again. One of the nicest things about Sunnyside, Queens is all the new and exciting seafood, ethnic spices and produce I have at my disposal. I am still trying to figure out my way around, and am still searching for the most frugal and sustainable options but one discovery I have made is a cute seafood store on Queens Boulevard. There are a lot of options and one that really made me happy is it's positively fresh (and in season) soft shell crab.

Soft shell crab is something that I have always loved but freshness is key. This is true of any seafood, and I have found that anyone who claims to "hate" fish have only eaten fish that is not fresh and has a distinctly fishy flavor. Seafood and fish should taste like the ocean and not be at all "fishy." Thankfully, the crabs were still alive and I could clean them myself assuring that they would be fantastically fresh.

I have been going to El Quijote Bar & Restaurant since I was a kid: first with my grandmother and now my sisters. It is a Chelsea institution and located in the Chelsea Hotel and was a popular spot for post gallery opening dinners. I do not think it is as popular as it once was but it will always have a nostalgic value for me. Their simple home-style Spanish fare is delicious and comforting. Their soft shell crabs are my favorite and are simply prepared. Dredged in flour and sautéed in butter. So good. Saffron or curried rice really go well with this dish.

Soft Shell Crabs with Burnt Butter

Ingredients:
2-3 tablespoons potato starch*
2 soft shell crabs(as fresh as possible)
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt

Preparation:
To clean the soft shell crabs cut of the head with kitchen sheers or a knife.You want to cut off the eyes but not much more of the head.
Rinse in water and dredge in potato flour.
In a good heavy skillet at a medium high heat melt the butter and olive oil together.
Melt until clear and very hot. Lower heat to medium.
Add the soft shell crabs, cook them for 2-3 minutes on each side. You want them to become golden and crispy.
Serve immediately and pour the melted butter over the soft shell crab.
Season with coarse sea salt.
Enjoy!
*I am gluten free so I used potato starch instead of flour. It came out excellently.

Gluten- Free Grass-fed Meatloaf

2010-04-23T14:44:00.001-07:00

At the American Grassfed Association’s conference this past February they served us lunch catered by the University of Kentucky and believe it or not they use local meats when available and for us they created a grass-fed meatloaf sandwich. They served it cold, on beautiful bread with sweet pickle relish and crisp lettuce. I am not sure whether meatloaf sandwiches are a bluegrass thing but they were so good. Also, it is a great way to incorporate ground grass-fed beef into lunch.

Kentucky impressed me in that they seemed to have not forgotten their farm roots and the fact that the UK kitchen’s catering service serves an excellent grass-fed meat loaf tells you how special the region is.

Meatloaf is so incredibly simple and easy to make that you might not think it would be dinner party fare but if you use meat from your favorite local farmer it can be 'fancy.' Or at the very least it will make for a neat story. It also a relatively inexpensive way to incorporate more farm fresh meats into your week. This version is gluten-free but it can be easily made with regular bread and soy sauce. It is by no means traditional but I have been really enjoying ground coriander and paprika with our grass-fed beef so I add them to our steaks and now meatloaf. I also had a few ramps left over from foraging. In the summer I might add chives and parsley or whatever is in season.

Gluten- Free Meatloaf

Ingredients:
2 pounds lean beef
1 -gluten free slice of bread soaked in milk
1-2 tablespoons milk
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
4 ramps (if in season) otherwise a handful of parsley or chives would suffice
1 tablespoon gluten free soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1 egg
For topping:
1/4 cup of organic ketchup
honey to drizzle on top
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325
In a pan sauté garlic, onion and ramps until soft and fragrant.
Soak bread and add to ground beef, and then add sautéed onions and garlic.
Add spices and soy sauce and salt.
Add egg and mix. Add to baking pan and top with ketchup and honey.
Cook for an hour or until done.
Enjoy!

This makes an EXCELLENT sandwich the next day!

Forage and Feast Fun!

2010-04-19T15:58:00.000-07:00

There are times when I have to pinch myself because I am part of such warm, passionate and talented food blogging community. This past Saturday was such a day, because I was invited to attend Marc of No Recipes' second annual Forage and Feast. The event was also hosted by Jonathan Landau who is the founder of Lab 24/7 where he hosts collaborate creative efforts. Yes, this was a super cool event!

The day started out learning how to forage which is something I have always wanted to learn. Marc has been foraging for years, and shared with us how to safely do it and also how to make sure that we respected the plants and harvested them in a way that promotes growth next season.

After we were done foraging for ramps, fiddle-heads, edible violets, stinging nettles and Japanese knot-weed we headed back to Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn to cook up our loot. I brought some of my family’s grass-fed beef to add to the local focus. Some of my favorite food bloggers where in attendance: Stephane of the Zen Can Cook, Jessica and her husband Lon from Food Mayhem and Giff from the Constables Larder .

Giff and I had some issues with cooking the grass-fed beef but Stephane’s ramp chimichurri was an inspired addition to the grilled rib eyes. Nonetheless, Giff's pickled ramps were one of the highlights of the evening so all is well that ends well, no?

The menu was really spectacular a true testament to the talent of the chefs who took the lead. One of the highlights of the evening was a ramp mashed potatoes with gruyere! I tried my hand at recreating it and I added a bit less cheese to make it not as rich but if you are a vegetarian I would add more cheese. Very special combination of roasted ramps, butter and cheese!

Ramp mashed potatoes with gruyere
Ingredients:
2 pounds potatoes
2 oz roasted ramps(about 6) then chopped
3 tablespoon butter,
1/4 cup cream
1/4 cup cheese
Preparation:
Boil potatoes, then peal.
Roast ramps with a bit of olive oil at 400 for about 10 minutes.
Chop up the ramps.
Mash potatoes with butter, ramps, cream and grated cheese.
Salt to taste. Enjoy!

Goldilocks Finds Queens

2010-04-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

So, I have moved! To queens! Moving is always challenging and it has left me with not that much time to blog even though it has not kept me from cooking. Just the other night, I made a fantastic creamy spaghetti carbonara but because I did not have my camera it will not make it onto this blog just yet. Today, I snapped my first photo here in queens, of our breakfast, a smoked salmon and onion omelet with a fruit salad. My mom has been giving us dozens of eggs because our chickens are in spring time mode, and we have been enjoying eating them for brunch and dinner. Mangoes are all over the markets here in Queens and I can not resist adding them to our meals. Not local, but mangoes and pineapples are two of my favorite indulgences. I use my mom's frugal, but delicious, fruit salad method where you add a teaspoon of jam and a tablespoon of juice(such as orange) to whatever cut up fruit you have on hand.

I have a lot more natural light here in Queens than I did in my Manhattan place, where I had a very small kitchen on the bottom of a townhouse. I am excited and curious where all this natural light will take my photography. I have also been having a lot of fun decorating our apartment. My sister who is a talented interior designer created a style sheet for me, and I have been going to the Housing Work Thrift Shop religiously(I am now the mayor on four square) and I have gotten some fabulous pieces! I can not decide which I like best about the 17th street vintage shops, that they go to charity, or that you can get high quality furniture at a fantastic price.

In terms of food, this move is going to inspire. I am looking forward to being close to Woodside, Flushing and Jackson Heights. I am also a stones throw from Brooklyn where I have so many food-minded friends. Change is good, and this one certainly has a lot of potential.

Onion and Smoked Salmon Omelet

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of butter
6 eggs, gently beaten
2 ounces of smoked salmon
1/4 cup of onion finely minced
Preparation:
Finely chop the onions.
Gently beat eggs and add the onions.
In a skillet over a medium/low heat melt butter.
Add eggs and onions, then add the chopped smoked salmon.
I like to cook my omelet on a medium to low heat for a while, and I like my omelet a bit runny in the middle.
Soft and gentle is that way I like to treat my eggs.
Enjoy! Serves two hungry folks.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T06:30:00.001-07:00

Some spring pictures from the farm. Happy Easter!

Icelandic-Style Leg of Lamb Roast with the Perfect Lamb Gravy

2010-03-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

There is nothing more traditional than a roasted leg of lamb in Iceland. I worked on a vegetable farm for two summers in Northern Iceland and it was served almost every Sunday. They grew vegetables like carrots, cabbage, cauliflower and potatoes which would be steamed and served with a gravy made from the pan drippings. Simple, but so good, and the simply prepared vegetables are fantastic with lamb gravy.

I grew up eating steamed potatoes, which are actually quite good, and if you are serving them with gravy they can be a lot healthier than mashed potatoes not to mention easier to cook! Of course, the better quality the potato the better it is boiled but I think Americans could eat a lot more boiled/steamed foods. Yes, I know a hard sell, but some of the best foods I have had have been in Iceland and Ireland where boiling or poaching are popular cooking methods. If you start out with fresh, quality ingredients, simple preparations are always the way to go.

This is true with this roasted leg of lamb; the only seasoning is freshly cracked pepper and kosher salt. No garlic, no thyme and no rosemary and because this leg was grass-fed on our farm I think it is the best way to enjoy the complex but mild flavors.

Icelandic-Style Roast Leg of Lamb

Ingredients:
1 -leg of lamb with bone(about 4-6 pounds)
freshly ground pepper
kosher salt to taste
1 cup of water to start out at the bottom of the roasting pan, you will want to keep adding more while roasting making sure that the drippings do not burn.
Preparation:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Some might tell you to cut off the fat on the leg but I love to keep it, when roasted it is really makes the slices of tender lamb decadent as there is a crispy fat top.
3. Season the leg liberally with freshly cracked pepper and salt.
4. Place on a roasting pan, preferably with rack.
5. Add a cup of water.
6. Roast at 425 degrees for 15 -20 minutes.
7. Lower temperature to 325 and roast for another 1 to an 1 and a half depending on your oven and meat thermometer.
8. Let rest at least 10 minutes before serving.
9. You can also add water at the end to make the drippings more liquid. Use your personal taste test to make sure that you do not add to little or too much water.

Simple Lamb Gravy

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour (if you like it really thick add 3 tablespoons)
2 cups of lamb drippings, homemade chicken or lamb broth or even water.
Salt to taste
Preparation:
1. In a small sauce pan, add butter, melt over medium heat.
2. When melted add flour, whisk.
3. Add two cups of dripping and broth, whisk until smooth, bring to a boil reduce heat and serve! Many Icelandic cooks will only use drippings and water which I think is very good, but if you have homemade broth on hand I think it adds more flavor to the gravy. 1 cup of pan dripping and 1 cup of broth is a good combo.
4. *in Iceland they use a browning coloring to make the gravy brown, which is not natural. This gravy might look like chicken gravy but it is not and has a very deep rich flavor even though the color is light.

Our sows enjoying the spring like weather!

2010-03-11T08:34:00.001-08:00

Thought I would share with you some pictures of our sows hanging out in the sun. Even though there is snow on the ground it is lovely and warm here up in the Catskills! Our pigs are Large Black/Tamworth crosses that have been breed with a Tamworth boar! So, we are going to be having LOTS of piglets soon!

Screening of Big River to Benefit Food Systems Network NYC

2010-03-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

Big River Trailer from Wicked Delicate Films on Vimeo.

Have you seen King Corn? Well, if you haven't you should (if you have Netflix you can watch it now online). It is a movie done by two talented filmmakers and friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis who travel to Iowa to grow an acre of corn. Seems simple enough right? Well, as the movie demonstrates, nothing is simple about how we grow corn. In the film, they touch upon the high external costs the production of corn has on us, and the alarming impact it has on our health, but they do not talk that much about the external environmental costs.

Their new film Big River will do just that, as they travel down the Mississippi to see the impact of the agricultural run off has on our waterways and the gulf of Mexico. From the film’s website: “In a follow up to award winning King Corn, Ian and Curt return to Iowa with a new mission: to investigate the environmental impact of their acre of corn.”

There are many reasons this topic is so close to my heart. For one, as an upstate New York farmer, I have seen the devastating impact corn subsidies have had on family farms in the North East. Not only that, we are being threatened by a large cattle finishing facility that will feed ethanol byproducts to 72,000 cattle that is be advertised as ‘sustainable’ because the cows' manure will power the ethanol plant. “Cheap” corn is all around us, but what are the real costs of this addiction? There are many and we need to make everyone more aware of them and this is why movies like this are so important!

Food Systems Network NYC will be hosting a screening of the film which is serving as a fundraiser for this fantastic organization. I hope to see you there!

Monday, March 15, 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (Screening at 7:00 PM)Brecht Forum
451 West Street
(btwn. Bank and Bethune Sts.)
Manhattan
Tickets
FSNYC Members - $25
Non-members - $35

Week of Eating In Day 1: Love

2010-02-28T07:25:00.000-08:00

In the Art of Eating In Cathy spoke a lot about how it is important to have a partner that supports your culinary endeavors. It not easy to be creative in the kitchen, and put your heart and soul into a dish and have it be met with apathy. Thankfully, my boyfriend is always delighted by my cooking and always has a helpful comment to share.

He is a big fan of ramen, so much so that I sometimes felt like our first year of dating was spent going to the Union Square Barnes and Noble and then to one of the many ramen shops that can be found on the Lower East Side.

As someone who likes a good challenge, I have become a bit obsessed with recreating the perfect bowl of ramen. I have also found it to be a really convenient weekday supper. I make sure to make broth after I roast chicken or pork and then freeze it. Homemade broth is key to a really show-stopping noodle soup but you can also use store bought stock or even bouillon. I have a recipe for that here.

If you are looking for a traditional ramen broth recipe, I recommend Marc’s from No Recipes. He uses a whole head of garlic in his recipe, which I think is key to an authentic broth. I always add a lot of garlic and ginger to my broths when I am making them and then freeze them in a few batches. When it is ramen time, I defrost the broth and add water I also like to add soy sauce and/or sesame oil to add more flavor. The pictured broth is a chicken and garlic broth with the roast pork's pan drippings.

In Japan, Ramen is really serious business, even though it is considered a “soul” food , and it has a lot of rules. In my kitchen, I am not as strict, and I will use any sort of left over roasted meat I have on hand.

Soy Sauce Braised and Roasted Pork Loin

For the week of eating in, I did prepare a pork loin especially for the ramen and it came out really well.
I preheated the oven to 325.
Using a Dutch oven I put about a teaspoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of rice wine (or sherry) on to the roast, and I seared the roast on all sides in the Dutch oven.
I added about a cup of water and 1 minced clove of garlic.
I placed the pork roast into the oven with cover on for almost an hour; I then took off the cover and roasted for another ½ hour.
I let the roast rest for 20 minutes and sliced it to adorn the ramen.
I also made a soft boiled egg, and sliced up scallions.
You will want to cook your noodles separately and add them to your ramen broth, then put the toppings on top of the soup and enjoy!

This ramen was met with a lot of joy by my boyfriend, he even said it was the best ramen he has had in NY!

The Week of Eating In: Frugality

2010-02-26T05:04:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest advantages to committing to eating in more is saving money and if you know how to get creative with leftovers you can save even more money. Leftover meats from roasts can be great in curries, hashes, on top of noodle soups and stir-fries. I had a piece of leftover Rocky Mountain Organic Meats' steak from dinner the other night and I also had a head of broccoli rabe in the fridge. I looked at my wok and thought lets fry this all up! Broccoli Rabe is similar to Chinese broccoli and is refreshingly bitter against the soy sauce and beef. Excellent and frugal!

Beef with Broccoli Rabe

Ingredients:
about 5 ozs of left over steak, sliced thinly
Canola oil for stir frying
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 splashes of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of water mixed with 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch
2 scallions, cut up
1 bunch of broccoli rabe, cut up

Preparation:
heat up a wok(i have my grandparent's which is well seasoned!)
add oil, garlic then scallion and broccoli rabe(you want the broccoli bright green and still a bit crunchy if you have the wok hot enough it should only take a few minutes)
stir fry to desired doneness
remove and set aside in serving bowl
then add beef(more oil if needed), stir-fry to desired doneness then add soy sauce and the water/cornstarch mixture.
re-add broccoli rabe and mix in wok then put in serving dish.
serve immediately with rice.
enjoy!

The Week of Eating In: Simple Goodness

2010-02-25T05:13:00.000-08:00

In the summer, I make burgers almost every week, but in the winter they are a simple treat. I love to use our grass-fed beef and the flavor works really well with sautéed balsamic red onions and blue cheese. Really easy, affordable and delicious! You can make 4 burgers with 1 pound of grass-fed beef! I love to make homemade potato wedges to go along with them.

Making your burger seasonal is easy. In the summer, I pile the burgers with fresh tomatoes and salad from our garden, in the spring I serve them with cheese and green onions.

The sauteed red onions are easy, take a red onion and slice it very thinly, sautée gently in olive oil and add a slash of balsamic vinegar at the end.

The Week of Eating In: Family

2010-02-24T06:18:00.000-08:00

Lemon Pistachio Linguine

(this is a day late as I could not post it last night) Food’s relationship to family is fundamental. It is a way of showing love, values and continuing tradition. In America, where we all come from different places and where both parents’ might be of different nationalities dinner can literally be a melting pot. In my home, meals were central to how we lived and related. My father was a farmer and my mother a painter, so meals were an important social outlet for them. At college I always wanted to linger at the cafeteria longer then my friends, to talk over our food because it somehow made the food taste better to me.

For the first dinner for the Week of Eating in I was happy to celebrate the inauguration with my California cousin, two of my sister’s and one of their boyfriends. The menu? Old fashioned braised short ribs(recipe below), pistachio lemon linguine and a killer salad. We talked for a long while, about what was going on in our lives and also our shared relatives. Sadly, my cousin Ramona’s grandmother Bayla passed away a few months ago. Bayla was my great aunt, she was glamorous, fantastic and kind. She is missed. My best food memories with her are scouring Chinatown for the best Chinese food and also her favorite Indian restaurant on the upper east side.

Because citrus is in season, I decide to go with a pasta dish and also the short raised ribs. I had a similar dish at a restaurant a while back and this is my recreation. I love the creamy lemon flavors with the surprising toasted pistachio thrown in!

Lemon Pistachio Linguine

Ingredients:
1 pound thin linguine
1 stick butter
1/4 cup cream
1 tablespoon lemon zest (1 large lemons)
juice of one-two tablespoons
1/3 cup roughly chopped toasted pistachios
1/2 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano
Add a caption
Pistachio and Lemon Linguine. Ingredients: * 1 pound thin linguine * 1 stick butter * 1/2 cup half and half * 2 tablespoons lemon zest (2 large lemons) * juice of one-two lemons * 1/2 cup roughly chopped toasted pistachios * 1 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano

Preparation:
Cook pasta as directed.
In a sauce pan melt butter of medium heat.
Add half and half.
add lemon zest, lemon juice and whisk together.
add cheese.
In a serving bowl toss sauce with cooked pasta and garish with roughly chopped pistachios. Serve immediately!
Serves 4 -6.

Day 1 of The Week of Eating In! Easy Short Ribs

2010-02-24T06:01:00.000-08:00

I have been using my Dutch oven almost every night for the past month. We harvest our beef in the late summer/early fall, so that means we have steak throughout the fall, but when winter comes along we are left with a lot of “odd” cuts. This is when a Dutch oven becomes your best friend, and I like to think it is a farmer’s best friend too. Adventurous home cooks are our best costumers and allies---it is easy to sell rib eye but beef shin? Braising can be intimidating but when done well there is nothing like it and the more you do it the more effortless it becomes. Back when we used draft animals, braising was the method of choice and many of our classic braising dishes like Yankee pot roast and goulash were in meant to be used on older tough animals like oxen. This is why grass-fed beef is so excellent braised because the leaner the beef the better it will be.

Spring Lake Farm Easy Braised Short Ribs

Ingredients:
Canola oil for browning short ribs
2 1/2-pounds short ribs
Salt and freshly ground pepper (I used white pepper)
1-onion, quartered
3-cups low sodium organic beef broth/ or homemade beef broth
3-cloves garlic, minced
1-celery heart with leaves roughly cut up.
1 carrot roughly cut up (about 1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons sherry
1-tablespoon soy sauce
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325
In a Dutch oven, add some canola oil, brown on all sides over a medium heat. I like to take my time with this step because it really adds flavor and seals in the juices.
Add onion, garlic and sauté for a few minutes then add carrots and celery heart.
Stir.
Add beef broth, sherry and soy sauce. Bring to a boil.
Cover Dutch oven and place in oven bake for two hours (add water if necessary)
Enjoy!

Day 1 of The Week of Eating In!

2010-02-22T18:46:00.000-08:00

Click on the above to pledge to the Week of Eating In!

Truth be told, I was not able to put Cathy Erway's book the Art of Eating In down this weekend. In fact, my boyfriend ---who is a big literature buff and an English teacher-- was really amused:" "you love that book!" he smiled. "I have never seen you read like that!" he declared. Yes, it is that good. I only have 20 pages left and I am a bit sad. I am in love with Miss Erway's whole philosophy.

I grew up with home cooked meals, most were also home grown. My mom tended a huge organic garden every summer and my father would butcher lamb and rabbits for us. I was a bit jealous of my friends whose lives did not seem so tied to the land or the ritual of mealtime. We had rules, how we had to sit, hold our forks and we also had to eat everything on our plates. This was not the case at my friend's houses where take out and lonely munches at the TV were common. To think I envied them! I did not know then how lucky I was. Lucky, to have parents that cared about what I had to say, over a structured meal time, and a mother who loved to cook.

Cooking should not be an elitist undertaking. There are forces out there that want to make us feel inadequate in the kitchen, that we somehow are not up to the job, but WE are. Today I cooked a big dinner for a cousin who is visiting from out of state and my sisters. In the heat of getting it all together I was feeling overwhelmed but when it was all said and done it was worth it.

Cathy’s book and her outlook is so charming and accessible. Just SAYING that you are not going to eat out is the biggest step. It is a revolutionary act in this day in age of pre-packaged EVERYTHING where we are inundated with messages that tell us that cooking is way too hard or that we will fail. It is with a lot of enthusiasm and energy that I begin this week of cooking in. Please stay tuned!

Winter Salad and the Week of Eating In!

2010-02-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

I have been making good use of my dutch oven and braising almost every night. All this rich food is perfect for cold winter days but it has had me craving fresh vegetables, especially salads. I had a wonderful seasonal salad down in Kentucky, filled with radishes and young bean plants. Very good. This salad is filled with fresh greens, radish, blue cheese and an Asian pear ---perfect for a lunch or light dinner. One great thing about cooking for oneself is all the power of choice. This brings me to a neat blog project I have been invited to participate in.

Cathy Erway has asked me to join her Week of Eating In which will coincide with the publication of her new book the Art of Eating In. I am pretty excited, and I can not wait to read Cathy's book.! She is as nice in person as she seems on her blog: a genuine spirit, who is doing a lot to make the case for cooking. I would love if you would join me in Cathy's Week of Eating In as well. It will be fun and most importantly delicious! She also asked us to do a video. Mine is not as funny as my friend's James Boo, but it will suffice!

Winter Salad
for the salad you will need greens, blue cheese, radishes and an apple or Asian pear.

Creamy Dijon Dressing

Ingredients:
1/2 of lemon juiced, about 1 tablespoon
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Preparation: Whisk all together, and dress the greens. Top with radish, blue cheese and Asian pear. Serve! Enjoy!

Irish Lamb Stew

2010-02-13T10:47:00.000-08:00

Many of you might already be part of the new trend of buying a whole/half cow or lamb and keeping it in your freezer. If you one of these people, an Irish Lamb Stew is the perfect recipe for all the odd parts. I know, that does not sound that good, but bones are your best ally when you are making a stew, it adds a lot of depth of flavor and frankly it might be the only way to really use the neck and breast. The secret to this stew is browning the lamb pieces, and I added garlic and sherry to make the broth a bit more alluring. It gets better and better, so leftovers might even be better than the first serving! Enjoy!

Irish Lamb Stew
Ingredients
2-3 pounds lamb meat with bones, such as shoulder lamb chops, shoulder roast, breast ribs or neck bones.
Kosher Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
5 medium white potatoes, peeled and quartered(about two pounds)
5 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 celery ribs, roughly chopped
3 onions, peeled and quartered
8 cups water(the bones from the lamb shoulder add a lot to the broth)
2 tablespoons roux
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves plus more for garnish
splash of sherry
Preparation: Season the lamb pieces with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven, over medium heat, add the oil. When the oil is hot, but not smoking add the meat pieces. Sear for 5 to 7 minutes on each side, add garlic, herbs and onions. Cover with water and bring to a boil for 1-2 hours until broth becomes flavorful and lamb becomes tender. Add sherry, carrots, celery and potatoes (you can add more water if you wish). Bring the liquid to a boil, cover and reduce the heat to medium low add herbs. Simmer until potatoes are done. Stir in the roux and continue to cook for 10 minutes. Stir in the parsley and spoon into serving bowls.

American Grass Fed Association Conference

2010-02-10T14:59:00.000-08:00

The Very Talented Chef Jay Denham

Bob Harned and Dr. Sean Clark on Berea College Farm

The captivating Dr. Gregg Rentfrow, Meat Science and Muscle Biology Processor at the University of Kentucky.Half Beef Carcass at the University of Kentucky Beef Lab!

Betty Fussell signed her book I Hear America Cooking for me!

As you know I was in Kentucky over the weekend, and I was honored to speak to a group of grass fed producers about social media.

The conference was an inspiring experience filled with talented chefs, academics and writers but I am always struck by the farmers; each a unique character and voice, with an compelling story to tell. I hope that they will be inspired to blog, tweet and engage online. I will be doing a series of how to for farmers on my professional blog, so if you are a farmer and want to learn how best to share your story, stop by here. I will be updating it this month.

There are many things I take away from the conference but one important lesson is that this grass fed movement is about forging new relationships from farm to plate. There are many that are needed to facilitate this, and there is room for all to benefit whether it is talented chefs like Jay Denham who are reclaiming the lost arts of meat curing, or academics like Bob Harned and Dr. Sean Clark who are teaching the next generation of young farmers or meat scientists like Dr. Gregg Rentfrow we are in this together. We need to cook, inspire, learn, teach, farm and write together. One inspiring meal at a time.

Broiled Flat Iron Steak with Mushroom Red Wine Sauce

2010-02-03T12:41:00.001-08:00

My boyfriend loves a good steak, he is also one of those fellows who really likes his Fillet Mignon. At first this took some getting used to, I never grew up eating fillet because it was deemed as "fancy" food and as a devoted nose-to -tail cook I have reservations about it . However, because he is so open to eating non-prime cuts I have learned to enjoy it . Thankfully there is the Flat Iron which is a steak we can agree on: it has the tenderness of the fillet but is full of flavor. It is a well kept secret too and is gaining popularity amongst forward-thinking chefs. It is tender, lean and extremely flavorful: perfect for guests or a date night and no one needs to know it is far less expensive.

We are low on steak at the farm so I ordered some steak's from a rancher I know out west in Wyoming who owns an organic ranch called Rocky Mountain Organic Meats. The beef is excellent and because it is all frozen it is so convenient. Not only is the beef packed with delicious flavor you can be assured that the land and cattle are being taken care of in a way that benefits us all. You are also supporting an independent rancher who is trying to do things right and I think this makes the steak taste better. If you are planning a romantic Valentine's dinner a steak with a story is a must.

We are in the middle of winter and I seem to be craving heavy rich flavors like red wine and beef. This dish also extends the steak so that a small piece feeds a big guy.

Broiled Flat Iron Steak with Mushroom Red Wine Sauce

Preparing the grass fed flat iron steaks:

1. I like to defrost the steaks in a big bowl of cold water while they are still in their plastic covering, this only takes an hour. I recommend this method over the microwave because some experts say that it toughens the meat.
2. Once they are defrosted, I like to salt and pepper them liberally.
3. Preheat your broiler for about 10 minutes. Add the steaks and cook until desired doneness.
4. Be sure to let them rest in a warm area for at least 5 minutes before serving!

Ingredients for Red Wine Sauce:
Makes enough for 2-4 steaks.

2 tablespoons butter plus 1-2 tablespoons of butter for finishing
1/2 cup of beef broth
3/4 cups dry red wine (of good quality)
1 cup of sliced mushrooms (about 2 1/2 oz)
1 shallot, minced
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:

Heat butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat.
Add shallots and mushrooms; sauté until tender about five minutes.
Add wine; bring to a boil until reduced by half.
Add broth,sugar and pepper and and bring to boil.
Reduce heat to medium and Finish with butter season to your liking.
Serve with broiled steak and enjoy!

Much To Do About Grass-fed and Social Media!

2010-01-27T13:58:00.000-08:00

I am excited to share with you that I will be speaking at the American Grassfed Association’s Annual Grazing America Conference in two weeks. My talk will focus on how farmer’s can best utilize social media to market their products and connect with the current online food movement. As a blogger and someone who works freelance on sustainable branding I think it is extremely important that farmer’s start to use social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, flickr, Youtube and blogs to reach out to their community and the world. There are so many people yearning for a greater connection with their food and most importantly those that grow it . Even the most rudimentary online presences can garner attention and new customers.

I am very much looking forward to meeting ranchers and farmers and also experiencing blue grass country for the very first time! Not only that, I have a grazing conference coming up this weekend in Upstate NY! So there will be a lot of networking in the grass-fed community in the upcoming week! I can not wait!

Related Posts:

The Farming Revolution and Social Media
How Farmers Are Using Social Media

72,000 Head CAFO Planned for Upstate NY

2010-01-21T13:30:00.000-08:00

Bion Environmental Technology, Inc. is proposing to develop a cattle finishing facility that would hold over 72, 000 cows. If built, Bion’s Beef finishing facility would be the largest of it’s kind east of the Mississippi River and would bring the trend toward consolidated feeding operations to New York’s back yard. It is no surprise that the town board of Schroeppel, NY has been receptive to the project as Oswego County is one of the most economically depressed counties in New York State.

I wrote a editorial about it on Civil Eats and it was published the morning. There has been a lot of chatter online about a series of "sustainable" and "local" CAFO's that will feed cattle ethanol byproducts. It is impossible for small farmer's to compete against economies of scale this large, and possibly the most alarming part of this trend is that they will be funded by our state and federal tax dollars.

The best defense against the consolidation that is killing rural communities across America is an empowered and knowledgeable consumer. This is why I am such a proud blogger, I think we have the potential to create a lot of change even if it just one CAFO at a time.

Grass-fed Pot Roast

2010-01-08T05:24:00.001-08:00

Chuck roasts are a glorious thing, they are so versatile, affordable and compliment the cold weather we are having. You can cook it whole as a pot roast or cut it up and cook it as real Texas beef chili, Adirondack Beef Bourginon or even Nebraska Goulash.

This pot roast is simple and will not disappoint. A lot of people add potatoes and carrots with the roast but I grew up with the pot roast being cooked separately. Boiled potatoes were a stable in my house, and my mother would serve the pan juices along side the roast. As a kid this was one of my favorite dinners, and the pan juices over the boiled potatoes were almost as good as the roast. YUM!

There is a lot of pan juices in with this recipe because I like to make left over soup with the pot-roast for dinner the next night, you can half the water if you do not think you will have any left for leftovers. Here is a link to my tomato and pot roast soup perfect with garlic bread for an easy dinner!

Rodney Strong Wines, a sustainable winery located in California, was kind enough to donate wine for this post. Wonderful wine in the pot-roast and it was also excellent as an accompaniment to the roast.

Grass-fed Pot Roast

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons bacon fat or canola oil
2 -2 1/2 pound sirloin or chuck roast
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, quartered and seperated
handful of fresh thyme and chives
two bay leaves
1 cup red wine
4 - 2 cups of beef broth (4 if you want to make a soup with leftovers)
1 tablespoon soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce (optional)
kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper
METHOD:
Season roast very liberally with LOTS of kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper.
In a dutch oven heat bacon fat, reduce heat to medium and brown roast on all sides. This can take up to half an hour.
Add garlic and onions saute for about 5 minutes, add herbs, water, wine and soy sauce. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.
Simmer covered for 2 - 4 hours.
Serve with boiled potatoes and steamed vegetables.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T13:25:00.001-08:00

My boyfriend got the idea that an outdoor fire was a good idea and spent much of yesterday preparing wood and a fire pit. An outdoor fire in the middle of the winter when snow is in the forecast? Isn't that a bit nuts? Well, I thought so, but it turned out to be fabulous and very warm. The perfect end to a decade. Fire can be that way, it is very zen. It brings you to the present and makes you think of nothing and everything all at the same time.

On that note, I want to wish all my readers a very happy new year. This year was especially challenging for many. I hope that the next year brings good luck and even better food. While I am on the subject of food, might as well share with you my family's new year day's brunch which is filled with cheese and all sorts of cured fish from pickled herring to smoked trout. We even finish it off with Aquavit, or when we have it, an Icelandic schnapps called black death! Cheers!

Happy Holidays From Spring Lake Farm!

2009-12-30T11:25:00.001-08:00

It has been a while since I have posted. This holiday season seemed especially busy. Lots of cooking, family time on the farm and deadlines. Hope your holiday season has safe and happy. Would also like to wish you all a happy and healthy new year!

Notes From NYC Food and Climate Summit, Part I

2009-12-15T13:28:00.001-08:00

I had the pleasure of attending the NYC Food and Climate Summit this past weekend. I hope to write more blog posts about the summit because it was a truly inspiring experience but I wanted to share with you my notes from the first policy panel I sat in on. I also hope to engage my readers in dialog so please share your thoughts and opinions.

The Food Shed: Promoting Sustainable Local Agriculture

With Michael Conrad, Assistant Director of The Urban Design Lab at the Earth Institute at Columbia University
David Haight, New York Director of American Farmland Trust
Robert Lewis, Special Assistant at NYS Department of Agriculture & Markets
Brad Marshall, Co-Owner of The Piggery, a small sustainable pork farm.

The Panel was asked: what were the barriers to creating a local food system ?

David Haight pointed out that New York is blessed by water but that our farmland is under threat. Our nine million acres can grow food for only 6 million people, which means that not all food can be local nonetheless we should be using as much land as we can for food production. Urban Ag is making a triumphant return and we need a system to match space with farmers and distribute produce. Land use regulations are barriers all over NYS and we need local laws that help to make it easier to farm. “Local is illegal in many cases in NYS.” He pointed out.

Bob Lewis: “So much good stuff is going on, there is a great swelling of interest, it is sad to talk about barriers because so many are being broken.” Green markets have become the first hope in changing the system, they have made farms solvent, created buzz and even celebrities. They have brought a much needed jolt of enthusiasm to our local food movement but we need to create infrastructure to bring that hope to our wholesale markets. What I found refreshing about Mr. Lewis’ approach is that even though he stated that we would still need produce from CA, we have a unique opportunity to have local farmers feed us. To do this however, we must clear many of the channels that stand between farmers and NYC consumers. He noted that it is easier to get an apple from Washington State delivered to NYC than from Washington County, NY because there are means of transport set up. He stressed that we need to recreate these channels with smart solutions that lesson food miles. He also noted that policy level connection ias critical. Rural and City People have to get together and ask: “Are our policies farmer friendly? Are they food friendly?

I especially liked Brad Marshall’s talk because as a meat producer many of his grievances are mine. USDA processing is his biggest problem; plants are over booked and hard to get slots (an appointment for a slaughter). Mr. Marshall wanted to thank Just Food who helped Pigery create a CSA so that he could distribute his pork without the headache of dealing with the USDA. He asked us: “How do I get my product to you?” Good question! We need public investments in logistics, refrigeration, shipping and processing.

Attendees reaction:

After brief and passionate brain storming sessions the groups agreed that the biggest barrier to a local food shed was Infrastructure and Distribution. We LACK REGIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE to facilitate transporting and processing food from upstate New York to New York City. We need more USDA plants, processors, milk plants, shipping companies, refrigeration systems, etc.

Another issue that we agreed on was land access. How do we make sure we are successfully utilizing our farmland and urban spaces to grow food? Lots of interesting thoughts on how to match young farmers with land as well.

A Grass-fed Dinner Party On a Budget and My Wine Challenge!

2009-12-03T07:22:00.001-08:00

The cold months of winter always have me craving connection with loved ones and this usually means inviting them over for dinner. A little can go along way and I have found that grass-fed beef roasts, even less expensive cuts like Top Sirloin, Blade Roast or even Bottom Round make for an elegant addition to any menu and are extremely delicious. I roasted this Bottom Round Roast with lots of fresh garlic and thyme and served it with Parmesan olive oil mashed potatoes and roasted zucchini. Homemade desserts are another way of impressing your guests and I find this apple crumb cake the perfect, seasonal dessert that is simple to prepare it is also extremely budget friendly!
MY WINE CHALLENGE! I want to explore paring wine with grass-fed beef and want to enlist the help of wine companies. I will be fully disclosing what wine I get free, and the advice I have receive. My hope is to learn about grass-fed beef flavor profiles and also to learn from the wine industry. I feel there is a great similarity between American grass-fed beef producers today and wine makers of the seventies. There is potential to create a truly American and artisanal product and producers like my family are learning the ropes as we go, in many ways, it is a great experiment. I hope this challenge will make my family better beef producers as I wish to learn more about flavor profiles and wine pairings. I will be incorporating my thoughts and education in a series of blog posts.

If you are a wine company that might be interested in this challenge please contact me at ullabear AT yahoo.com.

Perfectly Roasted Bottom Round Roast with Garlic and Thyme
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
4 cloves of garlic, minced and mashed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 Top Sirloin, Blade or Bottom Round Roast(about 3 pounds)

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 425.
Meanwhile create rub with minced garlic, thyme, and kosher salt and olive oil, massage over meat.
Set aside and bring to room temperature(about 20 minutes).
Roast in hot oven for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 300 and cook for another 30-40 minutes. You want the internal temp at about 120-130. Let rest for 20 minutes under aluminum foil.
Enjoy!

Easy Apple Crumb Cake

Easy Apple Crumb Cake

Ingredients:

Cinnamon Crumb Topping:
3 teaspoons cinnamon
½ cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup melted butter (half of a stick)
For filling:
5 small apples or 3 apples, peeled and diced

For cake:
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk
1 egg
¼ cup sugar (the other half of the butter)
¾ cup sugar
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
To make the toppings melt butter and mix the dry ingredients into the butter until it becomes crumbly.
Peel and dice the apples.
For the cake batter:
beat the sugar and butter together until smooth, add egg and beat, add the flour and milk in small batches until smooth.
In a spring form 9 inch cake pan use butter wrappers to grease the pan, add half the batter to the pan than half the apples, and half the crumb topping, and repeat.
Cook for 50 minutes, serve with fresh whipped cream.
Enjoy!

A Goldilocks’ Thanksgiving

2009-11-24T11:39:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate food, family and to give thanks but I love thanksgiving because it is the perfect excuse to go overboard on fall vegetables. In my family we are not really big on turkeys, and because both my parent’s think they are odd looking we have never raised them. I have been trying to tell them how handsome they are but this is falling on deaf ears.

Here are some of my tips for the perfectly roasted bird. I like to put an orange or lemon in the middle of the bird and cook it without stuffing. I put LOTS of black pepper, salt, fresh sage and parsley. I love to use Alton Brown’s method but I do not brine it. The secret is a hot oven for a short time and then you lower the temperature and bake it until it is perfectly roasted and tender. In only 2 and a half hours you have the moistest turkey out there, which really lessons the stress level for the chef.

Wild Rice Pilaf with Walnuts and Fresh Pomegranate

Other tips are my favorite sides:
Stuffing
Buttered Leeks and Pecan Yams
Curried Brussel Sprouts with Peas
Wild Rice Pilaf with Walnuts and Pomegranate

Maple Walnut Yams

2009-11-24T08:41:00.001-08:00

Maple Walnut Yams

Ingredients:
3 large yams
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons melted butter
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup chopped up walnuts

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325
Peal and cut up yams into cubes. Make them as even as possible. I cut them up before hand hand soaked them in water.
Place on baking sheet and toss with olive oil and place in oven.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Then add butter, maple syrup, walnuts and salt bake for another 10 minutes.

Moussaka with Mutton!

2009-11-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

A bit on lamb. Edible Manhattan just did a really important piece on how a lack of processors is really pinching small producers style in our area. I am very pleased that this is getting coverage. Creating new systems is more than just farmers farming and consumers consuming. It is about infrastructure that can deliver our product to you. This means more small processors with open slots, fair marketplaces were we can sell our products and chefs who are not afraid to get creative with whole or sides of animals. It is happening, slowly but surely but the lack of processors might be the biggest roadblock to creating a successful and vibrant food-shed for NYC.

We have found that mutton is a great way of helping to get around the difficulty of finding processors at just the right time. Not only that, it is extremely flavorful and perfect in Greek and middle eastern dishes because fragrant spices really compliment the meat. I have also had great luck with Sephardic Jewish recipes.

Moussaka with Mutton!

Ingredients:
2- large eggplants (about three pounds all together)
1 1/2 ground meat such as lamb, mutton, beef or venison
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 yellow onions, chopped finely
salt and pepper to season meat(be generous)
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of allspice
a pinch of nutmeg
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1- 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

For white sauce:
1/2 stick of butter, melted in pan
5 tablespoons of flour(if gluten free add 5 tablespoons of flour with 1 teaspoon of xanthum gum)
4 cups whole milk
Crumble on top:
8 ozs of feta cheese, crumbled

Preparation:
Slice eggplant very thinly, season with lots of salt.
Place on paper towels and sweat for an hour. Using a paper towel dab off water, brush with olive oil. Broil under broiler until soft and browned.
Meanwhile in a heavy pot brown garlic and onions in olive oil, season mutton liberally with salt and freshly cracked pepper.
Brown add spices, tomato paste and then tomato puree bring to a boil andlower heat and cook at a low heat for about an hour. You will want it to reduce a bit so that it is a thick sauce.
Prepare white sauce in a saucepan by melting butter and whisking flour into melted butter until smooth. Then add milk, whisk until warmed and smooth. Set aside.
To assemble the casserole, pour mutton sauce into large casserole, layer grilled eggplant over the sauce, then white sauce and then crumbled feta.
Cook at 325 for just under an hour.

Steak House-Style Dinner for Two

2009-11-07T12:52:00.000-08:00

Our grass-fed t-bone steaks well seasoned!

Grass-fed Broiled Perfection: Notice the Deep color of the fat!

Want to create a romantic dinner that is impressive but still easy to prepare? Consider a steak house-style dinner at home. I love a good steak and so does my boyfriend. I am lucky to have access to our own grass-fed steaks but they are becoming widely available in New York and have yet to make it into mainstream steak houses. You can make a grass-fed steak dinner for two for far less than a steak house and the flavors are more complex and interesting: perfect for a date night at home. A good grass-fed steak is like a good bottle of wine, it should tell a story and each farm will have a different flavor.

I like to generously season my steaks with salt and pepper and broil until they are medium rare.

The sides are just as important as the steak. My two favorites are french fries and creamed spinach but sauteed mushrooms, mashed potatoes and onion rings are other favorites. Not to mention the classic iceberg wedge with blue cheese dressing.

Hand cut french fries with creamed spinach.

Creamed Spinach

Ingredients:
1/2 cup cream
2-six oz bags of baby spinach, washed and roughly chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
a pinch of nutmeg
salt to taste
Preparation:
Clean and chop spinach roughly.
You want it to still retain some of the water.
In a pan melt butter and add garlic, then add spinach.
Sautee until fully wilted, add cream.
Cook until reduced by half.
Add nutmeg and season with salt to taste.

Homemade French Fries

Ingredients:
2-3 pounds of Idaho potatoes
canola oil for frying
salt to taste

Preparation:
Rinse and peel potatoes. Cut into French fries( I used a Madeline slicer) . Place in a container with cold water and some ice. Store for at least 4 hours or up to 2 days in refrigerator. Many say the longer it is in the water the better.
Bring hot oil to 325 degrees, drain French fries and get them as dry as you can and fry French fries until just golden about 6 minutes. You want them to be a blond color. Place on paper towels and reserve. Wait at least 15 minutes; you can also store them in the fridge up to a day.
When you are ready to serve re-heat oil to 350 degrees, and refry the fries until crispy. About 2-4 minutes. Enjoy!

Interview with Mike Baker, Beef Extension Specialist at Cornell University.

2009-11-04T06:25:00.000-08:00

Mike Baker, Beef Extension Specialist at Cornell University.

I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Mike Baker of Cornell University regarding a grass-fed beef study he is conducting. This is the first year that Cornell has used grass finishing in a beef study and Mr. Baker admitted that he was learning a lot about the process and the ins and outs of rotational grazing. The purpose of the study is to measure weight gain and final carcass measurements in an effort to some how quantify grass finishing in New York State.

The study was instigated by a group of upstate farmers (Mr. Baker is himself a Beef Farmer) to explore how to best utilize the 3 million acres of unused pastureland in New York State. It will also serve as resource for grass-fed producers and will continue next year.

When asked what he felt was the solution to Upstate New York’s devastated agricultural sector he answered: “Use of the 3 million acres is going to have to be a patchwork of organic and conventional farmers working together.” This outlook is refreshing. We do need more farmers, processors, artisan butchers, creameries, marketplaces and local middlemen to help farmers bring their products to us. The more farmers we have in each community the better chance there is for us all to succeed. The more communities are invested in farming the better.

Next year the study will be more organized and will measure weight gain more intensely, monitor grass intake and the body condition score of the carcass after slaughter. Mike Baker also mentioned that other aspects need to be explored like breeding, age at slaughter and the amount of land needed. “The propose is to make our land useful but most importantly profitable.” Studies like this are essential to understanding what goes into grass finishing so that it can be an option for more producers in New York State. The quality and profitability of American grass-fed beef has a long way to go but it is with the help of dedicated academics, farmers, chefs and customers that we can create a world-class product on our pastures. I believe that grass-fed beef could become a big part of a solution for utilizing our land and our vicinity to New York City is going to play a major part in this grass-fed renewal.

The steers are set to go to slaughter in a few weeks so there will be a lot more info to talk about then. I would really like to get press coverage for this study, as it is so important for grass-fed farmers to have an academic basis for finishing their beef. If you are interested in this study please contact me at ullabear (at) yahoo.com or contact Cornell.

Related links

An article I wrote for Goodlifer about the grass-fed beef movement upstate A Quiet Grass-fed Revolution.

My flickr set about the trip

Thoughts on Thanksgiving on Heritage Radio!

2009-11-02T10:13:00.001-08:00

I am pleased to announce that I am going to be a guest on Nicole Taylor's radio show Hot Grease today Nov. 2 2009 at 3:30 which is broadcast on Heritage Radio! We are going to be talking about Thanksgiving and grass-fed beef. Some of the recipes I will talk about can be found here.